James Potter and the Rise of the New Dark
by Random Person with No Name
Summary: James Potter is the image of his grandfather- charming, mischievous, and not quite the looker. At the moment, he's sure. But, being a Potter, his first year at Hogwarts doesn't go quite as he planned it. Annoying extended family, crazy friends, and a new danger rising on the horizon might be more than the poor boy can live. Thank goodness for Honeydukes chocolate.
1. Chapter 1

**Random Person with No Name has had an idea in her head for a while, and I'm finally writing it down. But, I'm sorry for the slow updates, I've been doing this online summer school so I son't have to take a class during the school year. My schedule's still messed up though, I'm missing an elective and got Spanish instead of Latin. So, as you all probably know, there were rumors of J. K. Rowling doing a Next Generation series, but that was all apparently bull. Which sucks. So I'm writing my own. A little bit about this story. The Next Generation: James Potter and the Rise of the New Dark will be following James through his Hogwarts career,his first year specifically, making new friends, teasing Albus, pulling pranks, hexing enemies, breaking rules, and generally getting on a lot of people's nerves. There will be sequels, if I get enough feedback.**

**Mood: Tired. I did NOT want to get out of bed this morning.**

**Song That's Stuck in My Head: Smack by 3 Doors Down**

**Diss: Screwed up School District. Spanish is impossible. PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME TAKE IT! I'M BEGGING YOU!**

** Please review, tell me if you like this idea I had. Feedback to continue!**

I wake in the morning, feeling like P. Diddy!

Great. Uncle George screwed up my alarm clock. Again.  
It was a normal day. Except for one thing.

Today, I would be going to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

SWEET!

I got and stretched, when I heard my Mum calling from the kitchen.

"Breakfast!"

"I'm up! Whoa!" A loud thud echoed from my Mum and Dad's room. "Teddy, was it necessary to tie my feet together?"

"I'm sorry, Harry, I had to practice my binding spell on someone."

"Mummy, Dad took my toothbrush!"

"Did not! See, Rosie, it's right there!"

"That's Albus's, Uncle Ron."

"I didn't ask you Molly. I don't know where it is. Hey, 'Mione, d'ya know where Rose's toothbrush is?"

"Ronald, you can't keep track of your own children, much less their toothbrushes? We'll worry about it later, you haven't eaten yet."

"Aw, is little Ronnikens getting yelled at by the wifey?"

"Charlie, call me the wifey one more time and I will hex you."

"Yes Ma'am."

"Hey, Uncle Bill, where'd my sock go?"

"I don't know Fred, but I have to get through here, so if you all could just MOVE!"

I grinned. It was hard, having the Weasley's and the Potter's (and one Lupin) all under one roof of the burrow, but it was fun.

"Ha ha, got your nose."

"Will, don't tease Lily."

"Yeah, Will, don't tease Lily."

"Stay out of it, Alyssa."

There was Uncle Charlie- he wasn't married, he was always off chasing dragons and whatnot; Uncle Bill- he married Aunt Fleur, they had Victoire, who was quite annoying; Uncle Percy- he married Aunt Audrey, they have the twins, Colin and Katie, then Alyssa, and Will; Uncle George- he married Aunt Angelina, and they had Fred, Molly, and Arthur; Uncle Ron- he married Aunt Hermione, and they had Rose then Hugo; and then there was my Mum, who married the famous Harry Potter, and they had me, awful Albus, and little Lily.

Then there was Teddy Lupin. He was my Dad's godson, so I have no idea if that makes us god-brothers or something. His parents died in the Battle of Hogwarts, trying to defeat this really old evil dude whose name sounded like Moldy Warts. We aren't aloud to say his real name. Apparently we had an Uncle Fred, but he also died.

Everything was always loud here at the burrow. I had gotten dressed, listening to all the yelling and checked my reflection in the mirror. Mum said I was conceited, but Uncle George says I have the right to be, my dad's the famous Harry Potter. Mum then said I take after him.

I wonder what conceited means.

I flipped my hair to one side, grinned, then opened my door, pushing past Victoire arguing with Teddy- they should just go out already- ducked under Colin and Will playing keep away with Rose's shoe- she probably hit them- and squeezed past my dad, who was lying on the floor of the hall, trying to get to Teddy, yelling at Uncle Charlie for tripping him- it was quite funny, Dad had put a shirt on, but since his feet were tied together and Fred had took his wand, he was only in his boxers. Amusing, but still not a sight I had needed to see today. Or any other day.

I pounded down the steps, to be shoved aside by Hugo, who I then pushed back, causing us to fall down the stairs into Alyssa and Katie.

"Watch it, twerps." Alyssa sneered.

"Behave and sit down. You all are too thin, come and eat, come and eat." Gramma Molly helped me and Hugo up, and waved around a wooden spoon.

I stuck my tongue out at Alyssa and Katie before sitting down and starting to eat. Uncle Ron was watching me with a really weird look on his face.

"What?" I asked, eggs falling out of my mouth.

"I was just thinking back to my sixth year, your dad hadn't shown up for supper the opening night, and I was eating, and Hermione was freaking out."

"I was not, Ronald!"

"Were too, you started smacking me with your book asking me, 'Will you stop eating! Your best friend has gone missing!' And then I glared at you and said, 'Turn around you loony, he's right there!'"

"Funny how you remember that but not our anniversary."

"Oooooh!" We all laughed at Uncle Ron's red ears.

"I did not! I bought you flowers!"

"The next day!"

"I thought the day before was your birthday! That's why I made the cake!"

"What cake?"

"The one I had made, and then Teddy took it and gave it to some girl he was on a date with, and the girl wasn't mad because it was her birthday and I hadn't put your name on it yet because I ran out of icing!"

"Nothing's changed." Dad grinned at me from across the table.

"Alright, everyone who is going to Hogwarts needs to go get their trunks and get them out to the cars, now." Aunt Angelina picked up her plate and was washing it at the sink.

Everyone but me, Albus, Hugo, Rose, and Lily scraped their chairs away from the table and started up the stairs.

"Dad, will you help me with my trunk?" I looked hesitantly at him.

"Accio James's trunk."

"DUCK!" I heard Victiore yell.

"Where?" Teddy's voice filtered through the floorboards. "Ow! That hurt!"

"I told you to duck."

"I thought you were talking about the bird!"

"Well, what did you want me to say, mallard?"

"Look out makes more sense."

My trunk floated down, along with Teddy's hat he had been wearing.

"Ted, remember no blue hair! We have to look normal!" My dad yelled up the steps.

"Can I make it red? That way I look related to all you."

"Only if it looks natural. Or you could do a brown color instead."

"Actually, I think I'll make it green."

"Teddy!"

"It's better than pink!"

"Your mother always wore it pink." Dad muttered, as Teddy came clomping down the stairs, hair a reddish blonde color, with a couple blue and green streaks. He was levitating his trunk in front of him, and when he reached the bottom, started having a trunk fight with Victoire, who was right behind him.

"You jerk!" She squealed, as her trunk flew over her head into Fred.

"Watch it Ted!" He barked, as it collided with his own.

"Take it outside, all of you." Uncle Percy yelled, not even looking up from his thick book.

I took a deep breath. I would be the only first year this school term. Teddy was in his sixth of school, then Colin and Katie, the twins, were in their fifth year. I felt bad for them, especially because of all the things Teddy told them about the OWLS. In fourth year there was Victoire and Fred, in third was Molly and Alyssa, second was Will and Arthur, and then I was starting my first. Rose and Albus would be starting two years from now, and Lily and Hugo were eight.

Just my luck, all these cousins, and I was the only one in my year. That I knew, at least.

Mum says I have it lucky. Dad lived with a bunch of muggles until Hagrid told him who he was, and still didn't know much about our world as the years went on, like insults and legends. There are stories that are told, where this mean ferret guy was a real git to Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione, and Uncle Ron tried to cast a spell with his old wand and it backfired. I think he should have held it backwards, that way the spell would've hit the twerp.

Dad also pointed out I'll know Jacob and Evan Longbottom, but Jacob is in second year and Evan hasn't started yet.

We headed out to the cars, almost leaving, but then Teddy forgot his broomstick and he's quidditch captain this year, and then Colin forgot his prefect badge, so we had to go back again, and then Dad looked at us all stern and told us if anyone had forgotten anything now to go get it or it would be left here, and not sent until an owl came for it.

No one had forgotten anything else.

I sat in between Teddy and Lily, and on the other side of Lily was Albus. Fidgeting, I started playing with my wand, twisting it between my fingers. It was the coolest wand ever. Cherry, dragon heartstring, slightly bendy and good for dueling. The semi decorative handle had tiny little vines running up it. It was a reddish color, and fit my hand perfectly at twelve inches. I wondered what house I would get in.

"Earth to James." Teddy was waving his hand in front of my face. "Thinking about the houses?"

"How'd you know?"

"I'm five years older than you, the first to go to Hogwarts out of our little family, and the eight people separating you and me were all worried about that. Especially Victoire, as she didn't know if she would be a Gryffindor, or if she was even going to Hogwarts at all."

"Well, it's not my fault, you always said that it would be better if I didn't go to Hogwarts."

"Because you're annoying, and I wasn't talking to you, so but out." Teddy turned back around to me. "Don't worry, but if you're a Slytherin you'll be shunned by all of us."

I gulped, but put on a brave face. "Me? Slytherin? No. That's Albus."

"No it's not!"

"Well, from the sounds of them, Slytherins are slimy gits, so don't worry, you'll fit right in."

"I won't be in Slytherin! Right Dad?"

"Well, Albus," Teddy cut in with a smile. "You never know where the Sorting Hat may put you. Who knows? Maybe you'll all be, even Lily."

"What?" Lily looked at me with her big brown eyes. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. I saw a pretty butterfly."

"Never you mind." I patted her head and she giggled. I glared at Teddy for bringing her into this.

"Hey, Colin! A galleon if James's in Slytherin!"

"Make it five he's in Gryffindor." Colin reached for his pocket.

"He's pretty open-minded. Five he's a Puffer." Fred added.

"Never doubt how smart he is. Five he's in Ravenclaw, like me." Will yelled from the backseat of the van.

"Good job, Colin." I said as Dad pulled into the parking lot of King's Cross. "You just got yourself fifteen galleons."


	2. Chapter 2

**Random Person With No Name would like to thank the one person who reviewed on the last chapter: Kate! Thanks, Kate! I did tell you that I want feedback, I'm not going to beg for it, but please review so I know if this is any good or needs to be taken down.**

**Mood: hungry. It's almost dinnertime!**

**Song that's Stuck in my head: Hedwig's Theme. . . a bit ironic.**

**Diss: thunderstorms. They're loud.**

By the time we had gotten everyone out of the car and gotten them trolleys and into the station it was ten-thirty. Needless to say, Mum was a little nervous.

We passed through the crowds, finally reaching Platforms 9 and 10, and I overheard a woman, the same stature of Gramma Molly, except much younger, arguing with a security guard.

"I know it sounds ridiculous, but it says so on her ticket, and if you don't help my daughter, I will report to your superiors!"

The girl was my age, and looked like she was about to die. She looked over at me and then at my trunk. "Mom, come on, we'll find the platform ourselves. We don't need help from some slacker guard." She quickly walked away, beelining towards us. I realized with a start she had read my trunk and figured we could help her. If my guess was right, she was my age, she would probably be sorted into Ravenclaw. Her mum huffed and followed over to us.

"Uh, hi." The girl shifted her weight awkwardly. "I need some help getting to the platform, and the security guy was being stupid, and I saw Hogwarts on his suitcase, so I figured you could help us?"

A tall man and a boy who looked to be two years older than the girl came up behind the short woman.

"What's a suitcase?" Teddy asked.

"How do you not know how to get on the platform?" Rose asked- well, sneered.

"You look like you could play seeker, don't you think Harry?" Uncle Ron elbowed my dad.

"Where's your accent from?" I asked, then looked at the ground embarrassed. "Sorry."

"A suitcase are those boxes on your trolleys- how could you not know that?- my parents aren't magical, so they don't know how to get on, meaning I don't either, what the heck is a seeker, and I'm American, if you're all done pestering me with questions." She smirked as she said that and put one hand on her hip and the other rested gracefully on the handle of the trolley. She was tall, taller than me by a few inches, and thin, but not too much so. Her eyes were gray and her smile crooked. Long blonde hair was tied in a braid down the left side, and along with her trunk she had a few other oddly shaped packages, one about a foot wide and three feet long, black and the handle had a ribbon with what looked like music notes on it.

"We're done." I said quickly, as Lily opened her mouth. The eight-year old was probably going to ask the girl if she liked butterflies.

"I'll show you and your family how to get onto the platform, dear." Mum stepped forward and started explaining how to run through the barrier.

She looked at Mum like she was mental. "Well, wizards aren't real either, so I guess running into a wall would be enough to wake me up."

She took off into a surprisingly fast sprint, through the wall. We all looked at her family, who hadn't followed.

"She's had this idea that since she found out she's a witch that she's been dreaming." Her brother said quite loudly. "Come on, I want to walk through a wall too."

"We can't, Lucas." The dad grabbed Lucas's shoulder before he could follow his sister. "We're not magic."

"Don't say it so loud." Uncle Percy chided. "We have an International Statute of Secrecy. Muggles, unless they have a witch or wizard in the family."

"Makes sense." The dad said.

"Why?" Lucas asked.

"I'll explain back at the hotel."

"You can go through the barrier." Aunt Hermione walked up to the family of the girl. "I'm muggle born too, so don't worry, you don't have to say goodbye out here. Quickly, now, all of you, before the train leaves."

I sucked in a breath and looked at the clock. Ten-forty five. Uncle Ron grabbed hold of the trolley on either sides of my hands, him standing behind me, and started walking towards the barrier. I closed my eyes, not fearing the impact, but because when you opened them on the other side it made it more cool.

I opened my eyes as I heard the deafening noise of Platform 9 ¾. The girl we had just seen was waiting for her family, who she pulled into a hug as soon as they crossed in behind us.

"Don't forget to write lots and lots of letters, and if there's anything you forgot- oh please tell me you remembered socks?" Her mum was babbling. She stood there, with a patient smile on her face, laughing at different comments her Mum made.

"Don't blow anything up." Her dad told her.

"Yeah, we all know you are susceptible of doing that. Especially cause it's you." Lucas smiled, and stared off into space. "Just don't. . . Just don't. . . Just don't. . . Just don't end up sending me a Hogwarts sink faucet." Lucas burst into giggles, as the girl pulled him into a hug. He tried to give her a noogie, but it didn't work as the girl was taller and surprisingly stronger than he was, easily twisting his arm around behind his back.

"I'll miss you, Lu." At this point the girl looked close to tears.

"Don't leave me!" The boy yelled suddenly. "Don't leave me!"

"I'll be back, Lu." The poor girl was getting seriously choked up. "I'd better find a compartment. Love you Mom." She gave the woman a hug. "Love you Daddy."

The dad leaned down to kiss the girl's forehead, and she turned, a smile disappearing as soon as er back was turned, and she quickly walked over to the train.

"James, come on, let's go!" Arthur yelled from by the train.

"Coming!" I reached the train, where Teddy, Dad, Uncle Ron and Uncle George were struggling to lift the trunks. The girl I had seen before, walked up next to us, easily picked up several smaller trunks, and hefted them into the compartment, before waving to her family and hopping inside the train.

"Bye Dad, Bye Mum, I'll probably forget to write, love you, don't get mad when I do, gotta go." I gave them both fleeting hugs and jumped on the train, Teddy grabbing me, right as the train started to move.

I sighed, and Teddy got me an empty compartment. I was sitting all alone, when the girl from the platform came in and flopped on the seats across from me.

"Er. . . hi." I said awkwardly. "What are you doing."

"Wow. You Brits are rude." The girl looked up at me from some device. "I'm sitting here because I don't want to sit alone like an idiot, you looked like an idiot sitting alone, and I figured I didn't want to sit with some wacko that I didn't know, so I sat here."

"How do you know I'm not a wacko?" I looked at her as she propped her feet up on the window so she was laying down.

"You're the only eleven year old on this train that looks scared out of their wits."

"You don't look scared out of your wits."

"I'm American. I can't look scared, or else I'll be pegged as even more of a freak."

"So, what, I'm normal?"

"Well, I wouldn't go that far. You haven't introduced yourself."

"James Potter."

"Mia Piper."

"What, no comment on the name?" I flipped my hair out of my eyes and leaned back on the seat.

"What, do you want me to call you Jimmy?"

"No. My dad's the famous Harry Potter."

Mia fake gasped and then went back to whatever device she was fiddling with.

"I'm guessing since you're muggle-born you don't know who he is."

"No, I know who he is, I've read as many books as possible about this place."

"Why?"

"Because my family learned the hard way not to bug me when I don't want to talk to them." Mia added a glare to the end of that sentence. She looked away for a moment. "What's a muggle?"

"Non magic person."

"Why do you have a strange word for non magic people? Couldn't you just say non magic person?"

"Muggle's shorter. Also, you Americans call us Brits, call crisps potato chips, and chips french fries."

"Hey." Mia looked at me very seriously. "Don't dis french fries. That's a crime."

"My point is that different cultures have different words they use, and wizards are a culture."

"And I thought I would be a nerd."

"What's a nerd?"

"Overly smart person who talks too much about everything they know. Why won't this work?"

"It's the magic. Muggle devices don't work in Hogwarts and on the train, there's too much magic." I explained.

"Great. No music." Mia sat up and went rummaging through her backpack.

"I could go get my cousin Teddy, see if he'll enchant it for you so it'll work." I stood and walked to the door.

"He didn't look like a member of the family."

"He's adopted. His parents died when he was young."

"Ouch. So he'll be the guy with blonde hair and green streaks?"

"Actually, he's a metamorphmagus."

"The crap?"

"What?"

"The crap does that mean?"

"He can change his appearance at will. Including weight and height."

"That is officially awesome."

"I'll be right back."

"See ya Jimmy."

I groaned, and exited the compartment. I had to walk through a few carriages to get to Teddy.

"Hey, it's James!"

"Finally, someone who calls me by my name." I mumble.

"Made any friends?"

"That girl from the platform. She just came into the compartment, said I was the only eleven year old on the train that looked scared out of their wits so I must not be a wacko and deemed me- well, let's just say I told her that I would get you to enchant her muggle device so she can do whatever and stop bugging me."

"What's her name?" Teddy had this weird look on his face.

"Mia Piper."

Some of Teddy's friends ooohed. "Young love!" One of them I knew as Peter teased.

"Are you kidding me?" I protested. "She's annoying as goblin dung!"

"Gee thanks." I turned to see Mia standing there. "When were you going to notice I followed you?"

"You followed me?"

"Well, yeah, it's not like I'm going to sit in the compartment all alone when the only twerp that's had enough decency to talk to me makes a break for it."

"Stalker."

"Ditcher."

"Troll."

"Smelly."

"Meanie."

"Meanie? That's the best you could do?" Mia smirked.

"Uh, yeah." I shifted my weight uncomfortably.

Mia snickered and then burst out laughing. "You could have responded something a little worse. There was something some kids on the platform were calling me when I went and introduced myself. Mudblood or something. Do you know what that means?"

Mia had managed to silence an entire train car in three sentences.

"Uh, I'm not. . ." I turned and looked at Teddy.

"Mia, that's a very bad word we don't use."

"Oh, it's like a swear?"

"It's a very inappropriate term to describe muggle born people. It's basically saying your blood is worth about as mud because you don't have any magical folk in your family."

"Well, that's a charming way to welcome a foreign exchange student."

A few people laughed nervously.

"Let me guess, the green on their robes had something to do with that."

"Slytherins." I said. "They're what you call twerps. Blood- lineage- is everything to them."

"So they're like vampires who only eat certain people? Where's Abe Lincoln when you need him?"

"What? Who?" I looked at Mia like she was out of her mind.

"Muggle stuff- reference to a book in which one of the American presidents is not really human, he's a vampire hunter- you know what, never mind." Mia walked past me to Teddy. "Which one of you are gonna do something to my iPod so I don't die without my music."

Teddy, whose hair was now blue- just the way he likes it- explained to her that he actually couldn't do something like that, that Uncle George's store had music players like an iPod, and those could be enchanted so you'd be listening to the perfect song to match your mood. That made sense, seeing how I saw Teddy messing with his a lot.

"Oh. Thanks for your time Teddy. I'm sorry for bothering you." Mia then walked back out, me not following.

As soon as the door shut, the talking started again.

"Where is she from?"

"Those kids that made fun of her should be reported."

"They call her that after what happened to Aunt Hermione?" I heard Victoire's French accent cut through the crowd.

"James. James." Teddy was shaking my shoulder. "James, I suggest you go back to your compartment. There'll be a lot of trouble now, and you need to be there when a prefect comes by."

I nodded and walked out, rushing through the cars.

This was going to be a long day.


	3. Chapter 3

**Random Person With No Name has returned. I feel like pizza.**

**Katie: I feel like Katie.**

**And now everyone lets thank one of my best friends Katie for appearing even though she didn't and I just quoted one of the conversations we had on facebook. Yup, we're weird. So. 49 people read my story, but only three reviewed. I seriously need the reviews, people, so I know if this story is crap or not. Be nice and put me out of my misery!**

**Mood: pacmanish.**

**Song That's Stuck in my Head: Duck and Run by 3 Doors Down**

**Diss: J. K. Rowling not continuing Harry Potter. She has so many better ideas than I do.**

I walked into the compartment and slammed the door. "What were you thinking?"

Mia looked at me. I had caught her off guard, but she was hiding it well. "When it comes to dealing with guys, I don't think so that way I function on the same brainwaves as they do."

"I'm not joking. Ever since a Death Eater-"

"Death Eater? What's that?"

"One of the followers of the most evil wizard ever. Anyway, ever since a Death Eater carved that word into my Aunt's arm, that word has been outlawed! You just don't go saying it, you end up in Azkaban!"

"What's Azkaban?"

"Wizard prison. Are you even listening to what I'm saying?"

"Do you guys allow ignorance?"

"What?"

"In America, if you don't know a law, and you break it, you still get in trouble. Ignorance is not an excuse. Do you allow ignorance in the magic society?"

"Well- yeah." I said, completely baffled. "Because of the muggle borns who don't know much."

"Then I'm safe, and the dorks who said that aren't." Mia looked at me again. "Aren't you going to sit down and stop pulling your hair out?"

I sat down, feeling quite stupid. Why didn't I think of that?

"You'll be in Ravenclaw for sure."

"Whaty- whoey?" Mia asked, a small smile playing on her face.

"Hogwarts has four houses- Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Gryffindor! My cousins made a four way bet on which house I'm going to be in."

"I'm guessing you get sorted?"

"Yeah. Teddy used to trick the newbies into thinking we had to wrestle a troll- my Uncle George helped- but then Victoire was a stuck up and now I can't tease Al, Rose, Lily and Hugo."

"Who?"

"Lily and Al- short for Albus- are my little brother and sister, and Rose and Hugo are two of my cousins- the only cousins I have that aren't in Hogwarts already."

"You have a big family?"

"Yeah, ten cousins not counting Teddy."

"I got twenty-one, mom's side alone."

"How?"

"Easy. The mommy and the daddy go in their bedroom alone, and they turn the lights off-"

"That's not what I meant!" I said quickly, paling at the thought of where that was going.

"My grandparents had eight?- no, nine- kids. Only one is not married."

"I have five uncles, but one's not married. My mum was my grandma's only daughter."

"And you're all magic?"

"Yeah, it gets pretty crazy sometimes, especially the three weeks before school starts."

"Why?"

"Everyone goes to the Burrow."

"I thought a burro was a type of cute Mexican donkey."

"Well, I wouldn't know that, but the house my mum grew up in with all my Uncles is called the Burrow."

"Who all are your uncles?"

"Well, there's Uncle Charlie, he's not married, he's off chasing dragons most of the time- though I did hear he has a girlfriend. He's a real joker, not as much as my Uncle George. Uncle Charlie's more into telling jokes, and he and Uncle Bill levitate picnic tables and fight them in midair."

"That's so cool!" Mia grinned at me as I sat down.

"My Uncle Bill is married to Aunt Fleur, she's French. He works for Gringots, the wizard bank, he's really into adventure and adrenaline junky type of thing. He helps search for wizard gold in old abandoned tombs with goblins."

"I saw the goblins at the bank when I went with Hagrid, they were creepy."

"Yeah, they are."

"And Victoire's their daughter."

"Yup. Then there's Uncle Percy- I am warning you now, do not ask him about his work. You will die."

"Why, is he an assassin or a spy or something?" Mia smiled, her eyes lit up at the thought.

"He's the Minister of Magic's head assisstant. Often, he has to try to persuade people of the importance of a regulated cauldron thickness, and if you ask him about it, he will go on and on."

"Kinda sounds like my brother when you ask him about history." Mia sat back in her seat. "Your family is amazing, they all do really cool stuff."

"Yeah, Uncle George runs Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, the joke shop you saw in Diagon Alley."

"We actually didn't go there. Since I live in America, Hagrid came overseas to talk to my family and tell us about Hogwarts. Hagrid had already gotten all my books for me, and I'll be using a school cauldron."

"Oh, I didn't know that. You'll have to go sometimes." I felt bad for her. Diagon Alley was worth the trip."

"I might end up there sometime or another. Anyway, Jimmy." She motioned for me to go on.

"Uh, yeah, then there's Uncle Ron, who married Aunt Hermione. They're my dad's best mates, been friends since they were our age! Well, Uncle Ron and Dad met kinda the way we did, and they didn't really like Aunt Hermione much until she lied to get them out of more trouble when they fought a troll in their first year!"

"Really? Oh my gosh, I would've just passed out from the smell." Mia laughed at the thought. "Ha, take this troll, you are no match for, oh no, darkening room. . . bad smell. . ." She fell back onto the seat as I laughed.

"Yeah. My mom is Ginny Potter, more widely known as Ginny Weasley, she was an international Quidditch star. She could play any position the team needed her to. Lead the Britain team to victory three times in a row!" I grinned, expecting the same reaction from Mia as all the others.

Instead, I got a blank face. "What's Quidditch?"

"Quidditch is a wizard sport, like American football or actual football- you call it soccer- or hockey or something. There's seven players to a team, a Keeper- Uncle Ron was one, so was Uncle Charlie; a Seeker- my dad was one, my mum was for a time to; two Beaters- Uncle George was one with his twin brother Fred, but Fred died; and three Chasers- that was Mum's normal position, and Uncle Bill and my Aunt Angelina were also Chasers."

"We get flying lessons, right Jimmy?" Mia cut in.

"Yeah. Why?" I glanced outside at the darkening sky.

"I'll learn the rest then. Right now, we have to get changed."

"What makes you think we have to get changed?"

"The fact that a certain blue-haired friend of yours is standing outside the door, waving."

I turn to my right. Sure enough, Teddy's there, mouthing words at me through the glass. The way people were snickering out in the hall, he was probably yelling out loud.

"What is he saying?" Mia looked at me, then back at the door.

"I don't know." I got up and pulled open the door.

"SO STOP FLIRTING WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND AND GO GET CHANGED!" Teddy yelled, causing more people to laugh. "Were you even listening to anything I was saying?"

"She's not my girlfriend!" I stumble back and wave my arms around. "She's not! I swear! I would never date something like that!"

"Offense taken, twerp." Mia said happily. "Though, when you look at the two of us, you'll be the one without any dates. Oh, and Teddy, we couldn't hear you through the glass, so if you knocked, you wouldn't have a sore throat right now. I'll be back!" Mia waved, and stepped into the next carriage.

"She's right." Teddy grew a beard and stroked it, something he does a lot as a joke. "Compared to her, you look like an ape. Even more than usual."

"Shut up." I stalked past him to go get changed.

"A haircut might help. Or if you let it grow out. Just saying, that haircut is really awkward."

"Leave it Ted." One of Teddy's friends, Peter spoke up. "By the time they get to dating age, they'll be head over heels for each other, no matter how ugly he is. Of course, they won't even realize it, driving the rest of us nuts with their constant flirting and arguing, and waste three years denying their true love until it all comes out in a dramatic display of affection."

Teddy and his friends laughed as I glared at them. "Actually, Peter, it sounded more like you were talking about Teddy and Victoire. That seems to be their story exactly. Of course, seeing how head over heels they are for each other, I probably shouldn't mention how Ryan Davies has her pushed up against a wall, flirting with her, kissing her cheek every so often." I smirked as Teddy whipped his head around.

"What? Where? That devious, no good, son of a troll, he is so going down in Quidditch this year!" Teddy almost yelled, turning around and seeing Victoire talking and laughing with Will, Arthur, and a couple of their second year friends, including Jake Longbottom.

His friends burst into laughter, clapping me on the back, congratulating me.

"Not bad, Jimmy." Mia smirked as I jumped. She had come up behind me. "Bathroom's yours."

"Jimmy?" Teddy snickered. "Since when are you Jimmy?"

"I'm not Jimmy." I glared at him, and went to go get changed.

By the time I had come out of the bathroom- was it necessary to wear these stupid uniforms?- Teddy's friends were making fun of him, pushing and shoving and acting like idiots.

"Wow." Mia said as I walked up to her.

"What?" I looked at her.

"Britain. The scenery, the history- everything is so different, yet so similar to home. It's amazing. Even the older kids are amazing- amazingly stupid."

I laughed. "Nervous? I know I am."

"I can't afford to be." Mia looked at me with cold gray eyes. "Think about it Jimmy. I'm from another country, but I'll be doing something everyone else is. If I balk at something, like get scared of something, I'll be separated even more."

"What do you mean separated?" I looked at her, as the train started to slow.

Mia looked out the window in front of us. "I'm muggle born. There's some prejudice against that, even still after everything you told me happened. I'm American. Don't pretend you Brits don't have stereotypes against us, which people are probably going to be asking me a lot about. Compared to you guys, I have an accent. Not everyone is going to be able to understand me. I don't know what anything is, so I'll be pegged as an idiot, and if I act scared at any time, I'm known as a chicken on top of all that. It's going to be impossible to blend in. I even look different than all of you. Tanner skin, my eyes change color, I'm going to be frozen most of the time and miserable because of the rain."

"The rain's not that bad. You get used to it."

"But I'm not, Jimmy. I'll wake up and be like, ugh, it's raining, and practically glue myself to my bed. You'll all be 'oh yay it's raining- let's go running to our classes and have races! If you slip, you lose!'" Mia mimicked a British accent- very poorly. "And then I'll try to join in as soon as I get myself out of my bed and then proceed to fall flat on my face."

"So? Every other first year on this train is scared. I can tell you that right now. But from what my cousins tell me, you'll have so much fun you won't even realize where the year went." I looked at her as the train pulled into the station.

"No turning back now. My parents and Lucas are probably on a plane right now." Mia glanced at the lights of Hogsmeade. "Alright, let's go get sorted. I'll blame you if I get sorted into a bad house."

"Of course." I muttered as we stepped off the train.


	4. Chapter 4

**Random Person With No Name feels like pizza, likes turtles, and wants some pizza and turtles really badly. It's too bad more people don't review. Hey, if you get the chance, my friend got an account on here, and I think she posted a story, so you should check her out! She's the only one on my fav authors list if you go to my profile. My brother's cheeks are jiggly. MWAHAHAHA evil laugh.**

**Mood: Slightly Crazy.**

**Song That's Stuck in My Head: Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down- that's got to be my all time favorite song.**

**Diss: The Son of Neptune's ending. One more chapter, Rick. Seriously. That's all we needed.**

I somehow ended up in a boat with Mia. I swear that girl is stalking me. She's really annoying.

"I hate boats." I grumbled.

"Someone's grumpy." Mia looked at me. "They're not that bad. But if you puke, do NOT do it on me."

"I just can't wait to get inside the castle." I snapped at her. Then, I could be sorted into Gryffindor, and she'd be sorted into Ravenclaw, and the only time I have to look at her and those cold gray eyes that look like they're reading your soul is in classes.

"How do you get sorted?" Mia asked.

"Talking hat. It decides which house your in. Slytherins are cunning and clever, you won't have to worry about them since they're all stuck up prats about being pureblood. Hufflepuff are just and hardworking and fair, but everyone makes fun of them because that's where you get put if you don't belong in any of the other houses. We call them Puffers. Ravenclaw's probably where you'll be, with the smart and the witty. Lastly, the brave, chivalrous, loyal, kind, and courageous-"

"Quite the description. Let me guess. Gryffindor, and you're sure that's where you'll be."

"Yeah." I said kind of sheepishly. "The only people in my entire family- not counting Teddy- that weren't in Gryffindor was my Aunt Audrey, she was a Slytherin, and my cousin Will is in Ravenclaw."

"Isn't Teddy in Gryffindor?" Mia frowned.

"Well, yeah. But he's not family, like directly related. He's family because he fits in well, he's my dad's godson, and Victoire has the biggest crush on him."

Mia snickered. "I wonder when he'll ask her out. From what it sounds, it'll take a while."

"Oh trust me. It's been taking a while." I rolled my eyes.

"Fudge burgers." Mia was staring at something, jaw open.

"Fudge burgers? Are you serious?" I stared at Mia, eyebrows raised. Did she really just say that?

Mia reached a hand over, and gently patted my cheek until I was looking at what had her wordless- for once.

I couldn't blame her. The castle was stunning. "What's got your tongue in a twist?"

"We are going to school. In a castle." Mia looked at me, her eyes wide and disbelieving.

"Well, yeah. Didn't Hagrid explain that?"

"No."

"Um, yeah. Hogwarts is a castle."

"That is beyond awesome."

I grinned as her eyes took in every little bit of the huge building.

"You think I'm smart?" Mia asked me, her eyes never leaving Hogwarts.

"I have since this morning. There were times it was questionable." She glanced at me, before turning fully around.

"You think I'm annoying." Those gray eyes fixed on me.

"Well," I cut myself off. "You're better than nothing."

Mia grinned widely. "Look, no matter what happens with the Sorting, we'll be friends. I'm not giving you an option, Jimmy." Her smile faded a bit, her eyes searching mine.

"No matter what happens, I'll be the wizard twerp and you'll be the annoying know-it-all." I said, and Mia laughed.

"Am I really that bad?"

"Sometimes."

"Remind me to bug teachers with it. I swear, I will read every textbook we get from cover to cover just to annoy people."

"Oh gosh, you're my Aunt."

"How am I your Aunt?"

"My Aunt Hermione is the brightest witch of her age. She was smarter than anyone, and the Sorting Hat considered putting her in Ravenclaw, but decided on Gryffindor."

"I bet she didn't read the textbooks to annoy people though."

"Yeah, that's a good point."

We had reached the other side of the lake. Hagrid led us up a path with plenty of stairs, crossing back and forth until we were at the top of the cliff, reaching the opening courtyard.

"This place is beautiful." Mia shook her head, a little dumbstruck. Her voice contrasted greatly with the babble of voices around us. "I know you think I belong in Ravenclaw, but what if I end up in a different house?"

"You'll still be bossy and I'll still annoy you with my apparent stupidity." I looked at her disbelieving. "Are you that worried?"

"I kinda hope we end up in the same house." Mia bit her lip. "You're the only one that's bothered to talk to me- and don't say I haven't tried to talk to other people, because I have."

"You might end up in Hufflepuff." She opened her mouth to respond, when I nudged her. A very short man had come up in front of us.

"Welcome to Hogwarts." Mia snickered at his squeaky little voice. "I am Professor Flitwick. I am the charms teacher and assistant headmaster to Professor McGonagal. Once we enter through these doors, you will be Sorted into one of four houses. Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Slytherin."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw four boys smirk and nudge each other. Those were probably the gits that insulted Mia on the platform.

"Wait here." Professor Flitwick slipped inside the doors, and returned with a large scroll. "Follow me please."

"Why is he so short?" Mia whispered from behind me. She had tripped and fell slightly behind. "Is everyone like that?"

"Of course not." I hissed back under my breath. "Colin said he's part elf."

Mia snickered. "That makes sense."

We entered the Great Hall, and most of us gasped. I saw my cousins at the table to the far right, smiling and waving. Mia tripped again, craning her neck to see the ceiling.

"It must be enchanted." a small girl in front of me whispered. She had thick glasses on her nose and hair braided back from her face. It was thick, brown, and curly, from what I could tell.

We stopped at the front of the room. Flitwick unrolled the scroll, and it was pretty long. He read off the first name.

"Almaster, Helen." He squeaked, and the girl in front of me with the thick glasses moved to the front. The hat was on her head for a total of two seconds, before it announced her house.

"Ravenclaw!" The hat boomed, and the girl quickly walked over to her table.

I zoned out. Three more Ravenclaws, two Slytherins, and one Hufflepuff- not in that order- were sorted. Seven down, fifty seven to go. Yay.

Not many were getting sorted to Gryffindor. The way the Sorting works out, there'll be sixteen new students per house, eight boys and eight girls. We had a large year.

A little while later, "O'Cuinn, Brigit!" was called. She was a Gryffindor. Then, "Pater, Mark!" I bent my head behind me a bit to whisper to Mia.

"You'll probably be next!" I whispered as the hat sat on Mark's head. He was sorted into Hufflepuff.

"Or not." Mia punched me in the back as Parkinson, Peony was immediately sorted into Slytherin.

Two more names went by, as after each one, I reminded Mia she was probably next. She smacked me each time.

"Wish me luck!" Mia said.

"Piper, Amelia!" Flitwick called out.

"I'd rather not." I said, and she hit me upside the head as she passed.

For Mia's sake, I had my fingers crossed for her to be in Ravenclaw. She wouldn't get made fun of in that house. Puffers were- well, Puffers, and what kind of fate would a muggle born in Slytherin have?

Mia was sitting on the stool, tapping her ears. The hat murmured something, and she nodded. They then became engaged in what seemed like a mental conversation.

Mia looked distracted. The hat wasn't muttering anything it normally would. She had been up there for a while, and she probably distracted the hat. Oh Merlin. This girl could get a hat to go off topic.

Mia was approaching the five minute mark, when the hat shook itself, and thought a bit, finally reaching a decision.

"Gryffindor!" That hat yelled. She was number fourteen out of sixteen for Gryffindor.

"Potter, James!" Flitwick squeaked.

Oh, for the sake of Merlin please let me be in Gryffindor! I don't want to be in Slytherin!

I sat down on the stool, and the hat slipped down on my head.

"Well, well, well. A Potter. First one I had since your father. Also some Weasley blood, I can tell you have the temper of your mother. Impulsive, like your father, and a knack for getting in trouble. I blame Fred and George."

"Fred- my cousin?" I thought.

"No. Your Uncle George's twin brother."

"Oh."

"Well, you're brave, courageous, but proud. Like your father, you would do well in Slytherin."

"Slytherin is for oily gits." I thought to the hat.

"I should have expected you to say that. Gryffindor!" The hat called out, and all my cousins burst out cheering, as did Mia.

I grinned widely and became the twelth Gryffindor. Teddy bear hugged me, cheering, before pulling away and yelling, "You lost me five galleons!"

Fred started a dogpile on me. "Good job Potter, I knew you could do it!"

"Thanks, man." Colin helped me up. "Fifteen galleons, pay up!"

I looked at Mia. "You still want to be friends with me? You kinda get all of us, even if you just ask for one."

She laughed. "It reminds me of my own family. I miss them. Even Davy, and he's the most annoying person you can imagine."

"You haven't met Arthur then." I muttered darkly, as my family quieted down for the next person.

Finally, "Zabini, Atlas!" was called, and he was sorted into Slytherin. Professor McGonagal stood up as Professor Flitwick took the stool and the hat away.

"Welcome to you all." Professor McGonagal stood up shakily.

"Wow, she really is old." I heard Arthur whisper to Colin.

"Yeah, each year she's looking worse."

"First years, let me tell you that the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds. Mr. Filch would like me to remind all of you that anything from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes is not allowed."

"Boo!" Teddy yelled, earning him some snickers. Victoire hit him, and he glared at her.

"Let us enjoy our feast!" McGonagal said, before slowly sitting down.

"Well, her body may be going but her mind's still there." Mia said. "That's a good- holy cow!"

The plates and dishes set out in front of us suddenly filled with food.

"Dig in." Alyssa shot a smile at Mia.

"But don't eat too much," Fred pointed his fork at Mia and I. "You'll want to save room for dessert."

"What is most of this?" Mia looked at me. "The only thing I recognize is the mashed potatoes. Ooh, I want some of that."

"Do you want some toad in the hole?" Fred asked her, a mischievous smile on his face.

"Please tell me that's not real frog." Poor Mia looked slightly sick.

"It's similar to Yorkshire Pudding, just with sausage baked into it." Katie explained, hitting Fred in the back of the head.

Mia looked at her blankly. "What's Yorkshire Pudding?"

At this point, half the table facepalmed. "Oh my gosh." Alyssa muttered.

"It's like a bowl made out of bread." I explained.

"Oh. Okay. I'll try some." Mia took the platter from Teddy.

"What kinds of food do you Americans eat in the states?" Molly asked Mia.

"Well, a lot of the foods are the same. Pork chops, roast beef, my brother would be all over the lamb chops." Mia smiled slightly. "lasagna, Chinese, raman noodles are big where I'm from."

"Where are you from exactly?" Victoire asked her.

"North America, Earth." Mia smirked.

"No, seriously."

"A small town in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania."

"Oh, cool."

"Is it like Cabin?" A girl with an Irish accent and short brown hair sitting across from me asked Mia.

"No, we don't live in cabins." Mia looked at the girl strangely. "It's not like we're back in Little House on the Prairie."

"What's Little House on the Prairie?" The girl asked.

"It's a book in a series that was written back in the 1800's, I think." Mia said. "I'm Mia Piper, by the way."

"Brigit O'Cuinn." She said her last name like oh-coo-in. "Cabin is the town I'm from. My friend Ryan Conner got sorted into Ravenclaw."

"He's the one with the long blonde hair?" Mia asked her.

"Yeah, he and I both've known each other since we were tots. We're both purebloods, if anyone cares."

"I'm muggle born." Mia said a little shyly.

"Well, then, be proud of it! It means your special. Don't listen to any nasty Snakes. They're all pricks, they are."

"I guess your right." Mia grinned at the girl.

"This is another one of my friends." The girl said. "Adam Docker."

"Hey." The boy said. He had dark red hair, not as bright as my cousin's or my sister's. "Nice to meet you Mia. Who's that?"

With a start, I realized he was nodding at me.

"James Potter. Nice to meet you to."

"Well, it's good to know we're all friends." Mia said with a smile. "Now I have someone to blame when I get in trouble. Don't worry, it'll mostly be Jimmy."

"Of course." I sighed, ignoring some amused looks I got from my cousins.


	5. Chapter 5

**Random Person With No Name really, really, really wants some pizza. It's just this weird craving I've been having lately. Nothing can stop it. Sigh. . . I won't get my pizza until the school year starts again. Bleh.**

**Mood: Craving- well, you already know.**

**Song That's Stuck in my head:So I need You by 3 Doors Down**

**Diss: There's only a few days until Demigod Diaries is released. That's too long.**

After the whole dinner fiasco- how does Mia not know what treacle tart is?- Colin led us up to the Gryffindor dormitories.

"This is where you will be staying the rest of your Hogwarts career, unless there's a slim chance one of you will become Head Boy or Head Girl, then you move to their dorms. Girls up the right staircase, boys up the left, boys are not able to climb up the girls staircase it'll turn into a slide. Or at least, so says my Uncle Harry. Alright, up you go."

We all trudged up the steps. The last door we came to, all the way up the spiral staircase, said 'First Year Boys' on the door.

The eight of us walked in, and promptly fell on the beds.

"Before we all fall asleep," The boy that was opposite of me yawned. "Let's all just say our names so we at least know who everyone is. I'm Aaron Kreld."

"James Potter." I said immediately.

"Adam Docker." Adam had chosen the four-poster next to mine.

"Matt Cumberbatch" The boy on the other side of Adam mumbled.

"Adrian O'Connel." They had continued in a circle around the room.

"Ian Thompson."

"Aidan Lovely."

"John Chambers." The boy to my right finished up. John was on the other side of the door.

"Now can we sleep?" Matt groaned.

"Oh, yes please." Adrian laughed slightly on the bed next to Matt's.

Aidan had already started snoring.

"Well, it's too late for anything else." Aaron said. "Goodnight."

"I'm hungry." Adam said.

"Are you kidding me? We just ate!"

"I didn't. I couldn't. Brigit was poking me most of the time."

"At least she doesn't have a ridiculous nickname for you."

"Oh, trust me, she does."

"Goodnight, Adam."

"Sorry if I wake you up with my stomach growling."

"Adam?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

"Okay. Night James."

The next morning, I woke up to seven boys with a death sentence jumping on my bed. That was before Adam started singing.

"Strawberry shortcake, cherry on top. Who's your boyfriend, I forgot. Is it a, b, c-"

"SHUT UP!" I yelled, tackling the doofus to the floor. "What is wrong with you, seriously?"

"I don't know. Brigit says I was born without a brain. But how would she know, I'm older than her, and we didn't meet until we were five."

Ian looked at him. "Didn't you say last night you're from the Scottish Highlands? How do you two know each other? Brigit has a Irish accent."

"A tricky situation involving Floo powder, Diagon Alley, and a giant vat of applesauce." Adam smiled.

I looked at him, eyebrows raised. Were all the people at Hogwarts this weird?

"Come on, James, we're waiting for you!" Aidan called from the door. "We started jumping on your bed to wake you up, not to start talking about applesauce! I wonder if there's some of that at breakfast?"

"Alright, give me a few minutes." I rolled my eyes and looked at my trunk. "Do we have to wear the school uniforms?"

"Dude, it's the weekend. We don't have classes. I think as long as we're in our house colors we're ok." Matt looked up at me from the book he and Adrian were studying.

Once I was dressed- and I punched Adam for singing- we tromped down the stairs, and were greeted with the sight of eight girls giggling.

"My goodness, Mia, I never would have guessed that was possible." One girl laughed from the couch.

"How exactly did you do it?" Brigit smiled.

"That's for me to know, and for you to never find out." Mia smirked, sitting on the arm of an armchair. "Well, it took you guys long enough, we were waiting for you."

"James decided to sleep in a little." John said. He was standing next to me, on his other side, Ian.

"I had to wake him up with my beautiful singing!" Adam all but yelled, walking over to Brigit and trying to push her off the couch. She elbowed him in the gut, and he fell to the floor, moaning.

"Suck it up, buttercup." Mia said as she stepped over him. "Adrestia, will you get the door?"

A girl with short, yellow blonde hair grinned. "Of course. Oh, and you can call me Addy, Mia."

I bit my lip to keep myself from laughing. Mia made herself popular in the less than twenty four hours we were here. All the girls in their dorm liked her. She was still bossy and condescending sometimes, but a likeable personality all the same.

"So Jimmy, are you ready for our schedules?"

"We call them timetables." I looked at Mia, her tawny hair loose and free, framing her face like a lion's mane. It was slightly curly, falling down so long she could sit on it if she wanted to. "How much do you know about England?"

"We fought you in the Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812, and you hosted the Olympic games three times in London."

"Alright, what do you know about the wizarding world." A girl with dark hair, almost blue, and bright violet eyes asked her, walking slightly ahead of us.

"Iris, you asked me that last night." Mia smiled. "Did you fall asleep or something? I know about the Salem Witch Trials, and how you fly on broomsticks, and- well, honestly, I don't know what's real and what's not, with how much you guys are in folklore. Elena, do you know where we are?"

"I think we're on the seventh floor corridor, and we need to go back to that hall we just passed, and that'll take us to the Grand Staircase." A short girl with shoulder length brown hair said. She was towards the back of the group, quietly talking with Matt and Adrian.

"Alright, from there we'll know our way. Should be easy." Mia grinned.

"Famous last words." I muttered, dodging Adam's elbow as he and Brigit were goofing off, poking each other.

"Will you shut up?" Mia hissed. "They look to me for solutions, and as much as I tried to convince them otherwise, us two are the ones leading this group. Partly because of your dad, and partly because Penelope got everyone else to agree. I swear, if she is going to stay up until one in the morning talking about clothes and makeup every night, she will have an accident with the giant squid."

I choked back a laugh. "Let me guess, you know how to make it look like an accident."

"Got that right." she murmured to me as we turned out of the door and into the Grand Staircase. "Alright." Mia's gray eyes zoomed around the staircase, now talking loud enough for everyone to hear. "Adam and Brigit, grow up. Pheobe, pay attention. Do you see- holy fudge burgers! That portrait moved!"

The rest of us had to laugh. "What, don't pictures do that in the muggle world too?" A girl that looked like the female version of Aidan asked her.

"No, they don't, they stay still like they're supposed to." Mia's voice had climbed an octave. "It is not normal for pictures to move, and if you tell someone that they do, you will get sent to a mental hospital for some checkups."

"Hey, Mia, calm down. That's just how it is in the magic world." The girl who said her name was Addy put her hand on Mia's shoulder. "Look, the entrance to the Great Hall is through that doorway and to the right. Can you get us down there?"

"Uh, yeah, I can do that." Mia's voice returned to normal, and she looked around, tracing a path with her finger. "Um, follow me." She set off to the right, the rest of us trailing behind her.

After a wrong turn, having to find Penelope after she wandered off, and Brigit almost pushing Adam off a staircase when it _moved_, we finally made it down to the Great Hall. Aaron and Aidan yanked on one door, while a girl named Pheobe and the girl who looked like Aidan- apparently they were twins, her name was Alexandria, but we called her Dri- pulled on the other. The doors finally opened, and we walked in to find the Great Hall absolutely empty except for Professor Flitwick.

We all looked at each other, before Mia was eventually nudged to the front. She glared at Ian and John, who started it, then turned and cleared her throat. "Uh, Professor?"

He turned to us with a start. "Oh, you're early! Breakfast on weekends doesn't start until eight!"

"Then why was the common room empty?" I heard Matt whisper.

"What I want to know is if breakfast starts at eight, which is in an hour and a half, why were you guys up and jumping on my bed at six in the morning!" I crossed my arms and turned.

"It was Matt's fault!" Adam immediately said.

"Was not!"

"Was too, you had gone down to the common room, saw all the girls, and came racing back up saying that we were going to be late for breakfast, that most of the girls were down there and they were the last ones left before we were alone in the dorms! Naturally, James, you slept through it, which caused us to have a brain wave and come up with the brilliant idea on how to wake you up." Adam grinned.

"That doesn't matter right now." Mia snapped. She turned back to Flitwick. "I had seen a sign that said breakfast is at six thirty to seven thirty. Is that just on school days?"

"Yes, Miss Piper. Now, you have some choices, you can all go back to your common room, or I can take you to the kitchens where you can wait there to help cook and talk to the elves."

We all looked at Mia, confident in the decision she was going to make.

Which is how we ended up surrounded by house elves.

"Master Potter, would you like to sample some blueberry pancakes made by Boo?" I looked down to see a little girl elf. I think she was the one named Boo.

"Uh, yeah, sure." I shrugged. Maybe this wasn't too bad.

"So, Mia." Aaron said from where he sat on one of the counters. "What possessed you into thinking this was a good idea?"

She shook her head on my left. "I basically heard, 'Go back to your dorms and starve and die of boredom, or go to the kitchen where there's food' and apparently what I read about house elves was correct, they live to serve you. I picked food, thank you very much." She said the last bit to an elf, I think his name was Gobber. She grabbed a fork and dug into the sausage and eggs that were on her plate.

"Who wants donuts?" An elf came through, pushing a huge cart, overflowing with all sorts of pastries.

"You know what, I don't resent you anymore." Aaron hopped off the counter opposite of us and grabbed some stuff off the cart.

"Jimmy, could you grab me a plate?" Mia asked as she put down her sausage and eggs. "Ooh, I wonder if there's bacon."

After about an hour of gorging ourselves with amazing food, Mia hugged all her little elf friends goodbye, and we headed out.

"Let's check out the grounds." Brigit said.

"Yeah, that'd be cool!" John said. "I wonder if maybe we could go in the Forbidden Forest."

"But it's forbidden." Elena said.

"Just a couple steps in, that won't do any harm." Ian backed up his friend. "And we won't go out of sight of each other. Everyone in?"

Mia frowned. "That's not a good idea guys, someone could get hurt. It's our first day, do you really want to be going and getting in trouble?" She crossed her arms for emphasis.

"Aw, is someone scared?" Aaron teased.

"Of course not!" Mia snapped. "I'll bet you you'll be the one chickening out!"

Aaron had really struck a nerve. I took a deep breath. "Guys, come on, lets play exploding snap. Mia's right, we shouldn't go in there, especially on our first day."

"Five knuts I'll be in first." Aaron sneered.

"None of you are going anywhere." A tall boy was standing there, three friends behind him. They were the ones who were confident they'd make it in Slytherin last night. "We'll make sure of that."

"You." Mia said. "You were the boys on the platform."

"Yep." Another one said. "We're here to make sure Hogwarts isn't pilfered by dirty blood. Say goodbye to your friends- only those worthy will be left."


	6. Chapter 6

**Random Person With No Name is back and at it again! Sorry for the wait. Needed to get some thoughts in order, working on details for future chapters. Working hard, especially at Slytherin names. Thank goodness my brother has a list of old Roman names- Lucius was on there, how cool! Though why he has a list of Roman guys' names I don't know. . .**

**Mood: tired.**

**Song That's Stuck in My Head: Eyes Open by Taylor Swift**

**Diss: Not being able to come up with names for everyone.**

"What do you mean?" Mia drew herself up to her full height- which was amusing, she was taller than the tallest Slytherin.

"We mean," a dark skinned boy, almost as tall as Mia- it was weird, watching this, they were all taller than me. "That dirty witches such as yourself no longer contaminate a school as respectable as Hogwarts. Magic belongs to people of magical blood, not muggle born idiots such as yourself."

"Says the guy whose friend has his robes on backwards." Mia pointed to the thug in the back.

"Shut up, Mudblood." The dark skinned boy sneered. I recognized him with a start- he was the last kid called to sorting, Atlas Zabini.

"Cut to the chase, Snake." Brigit came up to stand on Mia's other side. "We don't have all day."

"Actually, we do." The thin, blonde boy, who was a little shorter than Zabini, piped up from the left side. They had arranged themselves in a formation, the boy who spoke first in the middle, his brown hair gleaming in the sunlight from the windows above. To the right of him was Zabini, and the left the blonde who had just talked, the thug in the back. "No classes today, and students are allowed to change their minds as to whether or not they want to go before classes start, so I'm sure no one will notice if one of you goes missing, and we make sure the rest don't breathe a word."

Mia's eyes widened, and she turned to the rest of us. "Go, guys, they don't want you. They want me."

"We're not leaving you." Adam said.

"We'd be mad to."

"What can they do to me?" Mia whispered. "It's not like they know any spells. The worst that they can do is hit me, and I can make sure that doesn't happen." She huffed when none of us move. "Fine. Elena, Ian, John, Aaron, Aidan, Addy, Iris, and Dri, go back to the common room and get Colin or Teddy, or anyone that can help us."

"Get Teddy Lupin." I hissed quickly. "He's my dad's godson, tell him there's trouble by the kitchens, he's the sixth year prefect. He'll help."

Mia had already turned back to the Slytherins. "What does it matter how much magic blood a person has? I can name many witches and wizards who were amazing, and they were muggle born."

"Muggles are foul creatures." The boy in the middle sneered. "They have no idea how the world really works."

"Because of the Statute of Secrecy." Adam said. "That law states that no wizard can reveal his or her true identity to a muggle unless they have a child that is magic- like a muggle born- or the witch or wizard married a muggle, which they can then tell the muggle spouse with permission from the Ministry."

Everyone in the hallway turned and stared at him.

"In my defense, I only know the law because I broke it once. I didn't mean to, Brigit and I was messing around with some muggles, showing them some tricks, and they asked how, and I told them, and my parents called the ministry." Adam shrugged.

"Also, if you don't like muggle borns so much, why did you come searching out Mia?" Penelope flipped her shoulder length brown hair over her shoulder. She walked up to the front, and stood close to Zabini, tracing patterns on his shoulder. "Maybe you should be searching out someone you do like."

Mia pretended to gag next to me, and I bit back a laugh. Penelope shot a glare at us before smiling again at Zabini. I had to admit, for whatever reason he looked thoroughly distracted.

The blonde boy coughed, and Zabini roughly pushed Penelope off him. She stumbled back, and Matt and Adrian caught her before she fell, Pheobe walking over to her and immediately whispering and glaring at Zabini.

"Anyway." The boy in the middle, with brown hair continued. "I'm Prometheus Rua, he's Atlas Zabini, that's Linus Philander," he pointed to Zabini and the blonde boy respectively, "And that's Lurgan Goyle."

"Wow." Mia said. "Were your parents so ugly they had to pass it on in the form of names?"

Brigit, Adam, Matt, Adrian, Penelope, Phoebe, and I all had to bit back laughs- Adam unsuccessfully so.

"Whatever, Mudblood." Rua hissed. "Prepare to meet your doom."

"Really?" Mia deadpanned. "How cliché is that."

Zabini growled and went for his wand.

"Uh, Mia?" I had to admit, I was a little nervous.

From the looks of it, Mia was getting antsy too. She glanced behind Goyle and her face broke into a smile.

"Hi Professor Flitwick! How are you this morning?" She yelled.

I glanced at the end of the hallway as the Slytherins spun around. There was no one there.

I was yanked backwards, and noticed a little late everyone else took the opportunity to run.

Mia was the one who grabbed my arm. She let go as we sprinted around the corner as the four boys yelled. "Hey!"

I immediately ran into a hard surface, squishy enough that I bounced off it though.

"Whoa there." Teddy had a smile like no other on his face. I had never seen him smile that big before. "You're okay now."

I panted, trying to catch my breath, as Mia peeked around the corner. "They're gone. Probably to breakfast." She wasn't even breathing heavy.

"Easy now." A girl Teddy's age said. "All you, calm down."

I took another glance around. Teddy, Colin and Katie were all there, and the girl standing next to Teddy must be the sixth year girl prefect. The seventh year boy prefect was there too, and so was the Gryffindor Head Girl.

"My gosh." I said. "How many people did you get?"

"There would've been more." Teddy grinned. "Your friends came charging into the common room, and saw me, and all started screaming at once. It was enough to get the rest of the house up and awake."

"You guys caused a lot of trouble." Katie glared at Mia and I.

"Lay off, Katie. It wasn't there fault." Colin said. "Come on. It took Fred, Molly, Arthur, and Alyssa to hold Victoire back. I think it was Elena, she said something about blood biases and she started fighting tooth and nail to make sure you guys were okay."

I nodded my head numbly as my friends all blushed.

"Though Mia." Teddy said, as we all started walking. "That was quite clever. I liked the comment about their names."

She beamed. "Thanks. I don't know how I thought of that. I heard them talking, and that just- well, it spilled out."

"I once heard from a very wise man," Colin started, "That insults should be like pee- they should just flow."

"That is officially disgusting." Penelope looked slightly sick.

"Maybe you should drink more water, Colin." Mia grinned. "It might help you with your comebacks."

We all laughed as we approached the Gryffindor common room. Will was standing outside the portrait hole, arguing with the Fat Lady.

"Please, you have to let me in! James is my cousin!" Will said desperately.

"And I would if he was not standing behind you." Will whirled around, and immediately started yelling at me.

"What the heck did you think you were doing! You're not allowed in the kitchens without express permission from a teacher! And those Slytherins! The smart thing to do was to go, and give them what they want! Not cause trouble! What will your parents say?!"

"They would be proud." I drew myself up to my full hieght- which was pointless, I was quite a bit short for my age. "I did have express permission from Professor Flitwick, because by a mistake we all arrived at breakfast much too early. And for ditching Mia- like that would ever happen. You might be in Ravenclaw, and do the smart thing, I'm a Gryffindor, and I'm not leaving a friend to get the pulp smashed out of them."

I glared at him the best I could. Will was tall for his age, unfortunately, but he was only a year ahead of me.

"Fine. But I pity you. The Fat Lady told me Victoire's going insane." With that, Will swept past me and then walked straight into Teddy.

"Oh. Hi, Teddy." Will bit his lip nervously.

"Will." Teddy looked down at the short redhead with a stern, disappointed look. "We had it under control. What they did was smart. They sent half the group back to get help. They other half stayed to help. They wouldn't have gotten away without some brilliant ideas."

Will stiffened. "You can't blame me for being worried."

"I don't." Teddy said. "But that was a bit out of line, right there. Especially since you're only a year older than James."

Will huffed and swept past him. Teddy walked up to the portrait hole and announced the password. "Gargoyles."

She winked and swung open to Victoire fighting to be released. "Who knows how old they are, if they know some spells! Against a bunch of first years!"

"Victoire, calm down!" Teddy said, rubbing her arms, causing my cousins to all release her. "They were first years, and they all did some fancy talking. It was more a battle of wit, then power or anything else."

Her blue eyes rested on me. "James! You are all alright?" She rushed over, scolding us and fussing. None of us really listened, she kept slipping into French, a habit she got from her mother.

"Victoire, let them breathe." Teddy was watching with an amused smirk. I glared daggers at him.

"Teddy, will you get your girlfriend off of me!" Mia snarled, as Victoire had grabbed her, searching her face and and hands for cuts.

Teddy's face turned bright red, as did his hair. "She's not- we're not- it's not like that!" He blustered.

Just about everyone burst into laughter. By that, I meant everyone but Teddy, Victoire, and Teddy's fellow prefect- I think her name was Mallory. She stormed out into the hallway, and Teddy went after her.

"So what did you say to get away?" Fred asked Mia.

"Oh, nothing much, asked them if their parents were as ugly as their names, Penelope 'distracted' Zabini, said hi to Flitwick when he really wasn't there."

Everyone snorted.

"Well, it's not like they're the sharpest tools in the shed, you know, they kept saying cliché stuff like 'Meet your doom' and stuff, one of them had his robes on backwards!"

That got them laughing.

"Did he really?" Fred roared, looking like Christmas had come early.

"Yeah, I think they said his name was Lurgan Crabbe." Brigit grinned from next to Mia.

"That'll show them!" Aidan's red hair gleamed in the morning sun pouring through the windows.

Dri giggled next to him. It really was shocking how much they looked alike. "I can't believe you said that to them, Mia. I would never have the guts to say that!"

"Yeah, you would." Mia waved a hand dismissively. "You wouldn't be in Gryffindor otherwise."

I had to grin. Hogwarts was great.


	7. Chapter 7

**Random Person with No Name is really happy with all the love her stories are getting! Giggle. If any of you like Percy Jackson, just so you know you might like 50 Ways to Say Hello, and Will's Messed Up Life. They're my other stories.**

**Mood:Happy**

**Song That's Stuck in my Head: So I Need You**

**Diss: I think I might be updating a little too much. Is that a problem?**

The rest of the weekend went by uneventfully. Instead of hanging out in one big group, we all just kinda split up.

Matt, Adrian, and one girl- I think she was Elena- spent most of the weekend in the library. Phoebe and Penelope wandered off to a tree by the lake and sat there talking. Aaron and Aidan explored the grounds, Iris, Dri, and Addy wandered around the castle, Ian and John disappeared to- somewhere, I really don't know, probably exploring the castle.

Which left Mia, Adam, Brigit, and I to sit in the Great Hall and play chess.

Ryan Conner, and Ravenclaw first year who was a friend of Brigit's and Adam's came to play a few games, but that made the number all odd. But then Teddy, Victoire, and Fred came and joined us with a couple more chess boards and everything was good.

"Come on, kill him!" Mia banged her fists on the table, while Teddy laughed across from her. "He's a bishop, take him down!"

Teddy calmed down enough to talk. "Mia, the bishop's yours. You want him to win. You don't want the knight to win, he's mine."

Mia slumped in her seat. "Oh yeah."

That got the rest of us cracking up.

"I'm sorry, this is confusing!" Mia moaned. "Especially when the pieces have minds of their own!"

"Well, they are enchanted." Teddy pointed out. "You don't have to worry about moving any pieces, you can focus on the board as a whole."

"Yeah, but when they start screaming insults at you it's kinda hard to think!" Mia rolled her eyes. "I don't get this game. I wasn't good at it the game before this one, I'm not good at it now, and seeing how your knight just defeated my bishop and is about to kill my king and it doesn't matter where I move you'll just have a rook there waiting, I'm not going to be good at the next game we play!"

Victoire looked up from her game with Fred. "Why don't we talk about something else. No, not Quidditch."

Mia perked up. "What's your wand like?"

Teddy chuckled. "There's more to wands than what they're like." He reached in his sleeve and pulled out his wand. "I did an essay for extra credit last year on wands and how they affect magical defense. I want to be a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, you see, like my dad, but an auror like my mum is my backup plan. This is cedar, dragon heartstring, twelve inches. Cedar wands pick people with a strength of character, unusual loyalty, who are perceptive, frightening adversaries, and people you don't want to cross."

"That sounds like you." I grinned.

"Yeah, I guess. What's yours, Mia?"

Mia smiled. "Applewood, dragon heartstring, thirteen and a half inches."

"Wow, that's one of the longer ones. Wands that long tend to pick people with a big personality, or the person is really, really, tall. Applewood is one of the more rare woods, and they pick people of high aims and ideals, who are well- loved and long- lived, and have great personal charm. It'll mix poorly with Dark Magic, and most people who have Apple as their wand's wood have an ability to speak to other species in their own native language."

Mia's eyes widened and her eyebrows furrowed into a frown. She sat back in her seat, lost in her own little world.

"What about you, Victoire?" I asked.

"Fir, dragon heartstring, twelve and a half inches." Victoire flipped her glossy red hair over her shoulder.

Teddy grinned. "Fir is the wood of a survivor. It picks people who are focused, strong minded, and intimidating. Their owners usually have staying power- meaning they're stubborn- and a strength of purpose."

"Well that's Vic alright." Fred joked, dodging Victoire's hand. "Mine's dogwood, dragon heartstring- what is it with dragon heartstring?- twelve inches."

"You're entertaning, quirky, mischievous, playful, noisy, unable to cast nonverbal spells and we all knew that already so nothing's revealed." Teddy grinned as Fred pretended to act offended.

"Wait." I frowned. "Isn't Uncle George's wand Dogwood?"

Fred bobbed his head. "Yeah. So was his twin and my namesake's."

"There was a Fred Senior?" Mia asked him. I wonder when she started paying attention again.

"Not exactly senior, my dad's twin was named Fred, but Uncle Fred- he died, in the Battle of Hogwarts. If you don't already know about it, you'll learn in DADA."

Mia nodded and looked to Brigit. "What's yours?"

Brigit smiled proudly. "Beech, unicorn hair-"

"Wow, something different." Adam joked.

"Eleven and three quarters inches." Brigit finished, glaring at Adam.

Teddy smiled. "Beech wands usually choose someone wise beyond their years if young, and rich in understanding and experience as they grow older. People who have beech wands are almost always open minded and tolerant."

"That makes sense." Mia said. "I mean, she's friends with Adam."

"Hey." Adam frowned, but smiled as everyone laughed.

"Ryan what about you?" I asked the blonde boy who sat across from Brigit. He was pretty shy, not talking to anyone other than Brigit, an older boy who looks like him, and occasionally Adam.

"Acacia, phoenix feather, eleven and three quarters inches." He just about whispered.

Teddy smiled at him encouragingly. "Acacia wands usually are hard to place because of their weird temperament. They don't produce magic for anyone but it's owner, and withhold their best efforts from all but those most gifted. They tend to pick people who are subtle and are good at nonverbal magic."

"Well, that suits you, Ryan." Brigit grinned, shaking his shoulder a bit.

"Yeah." Adam said. "You're not exactly verbal."

"Adam!" Brigit glared at Adam from across the table.

"Anyway, Adam, what's your wand?" Fred asked. "Is it dogwood?"

"No, but there was one that was dogwood that sort of liked me." Adam grinned sheepishly. "Willow, unicorn hair, twelve and a half inches."

Teddy nodded, thinking before answering. "It's curious that your wand is willow, Adam, they usually pick people with an insecurity, no matter how well they've hidden it or how well they've tried. But they also pick people with great potential."

Adam puffed out his chest. "All hail Adam Cornelius Docker, master dueler, expert beast tamer, wizard extraordinaire! Greatest wizard of all ti- oof!" He fell over onto a chessboard, scattering all the pieces.

We bust out laughing.

"You goof." Brigit pulled Adam up by his arm. "He said you have great potential, that doesn't mean you'll actually be anything."

Adam's smile faltered a bit, before he shook Brigit off and did a cartwheel. "There. I reached my full potential."

Mia raised an eyebrow. "Are you kidding me? A cartwheel? Come on Adam, gymnastics might not be your strong point but there's a lot of other things you're good at."

Adam stuck out his tongue and said, "You do something better. I bet you can't."

Mia stood up. "Seeing how I do gymnastics I sure hope I can." She grabbed a bench. "Teddy, can you make this four inches wide, four feet off the ground, six feet long?"

Teddy shrugged. "Sure." He waved his wand, and the bench shaped itself to the dimensions Mia had asked.

Mia nodded her head, and said, "I'll be right back." With that, she ran off.

"Wonder where she went." Fred said.

"I can find out." I said. "Dad gave me the Marauder's Map."

I pulled it out of my pocket, and opened it up. I found Mia, and from the pace her dot was moving, she was probably sprinting. Of course, it was Mia, so she was probably jogging at a leisurely pace.

"She's headed towards the common room." Victoire pointed out.

Soon, Mia's dot was coming back. I put the map away right before she came through the door.

"Sorry about that. I can't do flips and such in a skirt."

As she said that, I noticed she had changed into a pair of really short shorts- the kind Victoire wanted, and Aunt Fleur said it was okay, but the first time she wore them Uncle Bill flipped.

She set her robe on the bench, and backed up a bunch of steps. "A springboard?"

Teddy waved his wand again, and one appeared at one end of the bench- but it wasn't a bench any more. It was a balance beam.

Wow. Took me long enough to figure that out.

Mia frowned and walked forward, pulled the springboard back a bit, then turned to Teddy. "Sorry, I just have a really big jump."

He shrugged, and gestured for her to go on. She backed up again, and started running. She flipped onto her hands, doing a cartwheel onto the springboard, launching herself onto the beam. She took a moment to take a breath, then turned another cartwheel.

"Now look, you're doing a cartwheel." Adam complained.

"But it's much more impressive, since I'm four feet in the air, and this is four inches wide."

"That's a good point."

Mia rolled her eyes, before leaning backwards, putting her hands on the bar, and her feet went up into the air, before righting herself a few feet back.

"Back walkover." Mia smirked, before turning over onto her hands, and pushing herself back up into a standing position. The she jumped, and flipped over, before turning all the way around, one leg sticking out to the front.

"Front handspring, front flip, full rotation." Mia was grinning now as she named all the stuff she was doing.

I rolled my eyes. Somehow I knew I was going to have to get used to Mia showing off as she stopped naming what she was doing and just jumped around on the beam.

"I have to admit, that's impressive." Teddy conceded.

Mia grinned, jumped to the other end of the beam, turned, and did some flips around to the end before jumping off, turning several times. Teddy waved his wand quickly, and a mat appeared right underneath her feet as she landed.

"See?" Mia put her hand on her hip. "I can do better."

Adam pouted, but then brightened. "Can I try?"

"No, you'll kill yourself." Mia turned to me. "So instead of torturing my mind with chess or torturing Adam with my amazing skills, or talking about wands until our brains are coming out of our ears, what are we going to do now?"

I chuckled. "We can go get our timetables. Professor Longbottom is handing them out now. Professor Flitwick will have the Ravenclaw times, Ryan."

Ryan nodded and headed off. We all turned right as Professor Longbottom reached us.

"Teddy, Victoire, Fred, Brigit, Adam, James, Mia- that was impressive, by the way."

"Thank you, Professor." Mia beamed. It was easy to tell she liked the attention.

"Timetables for the first semester. You'll have me for Herbology, Professor Flitwick for Charms, Professor Wilkins for Transfiguration, Professor Dallster for Defense Against the Dark Arts, Professor Binns for History of Magic, and Professor Zabini for Potions."

Mia's head snapped up to look at Professor Longbottom- or Neville, but that was only outside of school. He didn't notice though- I think I was the only one who did.

"I'll see you all on Monday- including you, Teddy. If you want to be an auror you need my class."

Teddy mumbled something about a backup plan, in case Professor Dallster- who was almost as old as Flitwick and McGonagal- didn't retire.

"Cool." Brigit looked over her timetable. "We have double Charms on Mondays."

Mia looked at me, her eyes wide. Suddenly I got it.

Professor Zabini was related to the Zabini in our year.

Of whom Mia was a target.


	8. Chapter 8

**Random Person with No Name here. Sorry for the delay, I had a bunch of problems with my internet connection. But, now, strangely enough, it's working again, so hopefully that's done and overwith. Also, check out the new cover photo! Tell me what you think, I drew it myself. It's James and Mia!**

**Mood: Hungry. Dinner's coming soon**

**Song That's Stuck in My Head: She's So Mean by Matchbox Twenty**

**Diss: Computer Problems**

After finishing the conversation with Professor Longbottom, Mia and I quickly excused ourselves, saying we were going to explore the castle.

"Brigit, Adam, Ryan, you coming?" Mia asked. Why, I don't know.

Ryan shook his head, almost imperceptibly. Brigit glanced at him, and shook her head. "I think we'll stay, but thanks."

"No prob. See ya." Mia flipped her long hair over her shoulder and walked out of the Great Hall.

"What was that about?" I asked Mia, as soon as we were alone in a corridor.

"Okay, this might seem weird, but at home, whenever two people tried to excuse themselves, especially two people of opposite genders, without inviting anyone else, they're accused of dating."

"What if they're both girls? Or both guys?"

"Depends on the popularity status. If they're well liked, people let them go."

"What if they're unpopular?"

"They're accused of dating."

"Even if it's two guys? Or two girls?"

"Yeah."

"Um. . ."

"What?"

"Nothing." I looked away quickly. Americans are so weird.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mia roll her eyes. "Wow." She muttered. "So what are we going to do about Zabini?"

"Well, we really can't do anything. He's a teacher, he's probably not retiring anytime soon, because he was only hired a few years ago. The only thing we can do is not make a big deal about it."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I say. If you don't make a big deal about being muggle born, there won't be a problem hopefully. He might make a few offhand comments about how you're a show off or stupid, or trouble making- I'm sorry, I've never seen you in the classroom, I don't know what he might say about you."

"It's fine."

"But as a teacher, he can't say anything or he'll lose his job. Just ignore it if he says anything about you specifically."

"How many other muggle borns are in our grade?"

"Well, there's you, and then there are some classic wizarding names, like Bones or Weasely, who you can immediately tell are wizards, whether half blood of pure blood, I don't know. Malfoy is a huge name, very famous, for a variety of reasons, but there aren't any of them in our year. I didn't recognize the name Rodriguez, but Enrique is from Spain, so the only way to know is by asking."

"How do you spell his name anyway?"

"E-n-r-i-q-u-e."

"That's On-reek. His name's Ehn-ree-kay."

"That's how it's spelled. He's pretty nice, especially for a Puffer. I mean, Hufflepuffs are nice in general, but he seems different, somehow."

"Open, talkative to people of other houses and years, not sticking his nose and sneering at anyone who isn't a Hufflepuff. . . Do any of those work for you?"

"Haha."

"It's true."

"Yeah, it is, my Uncle George has some stories about Puffs."

"Were they like that back then too? I mean, a lot of them are nice, but there are some that are jerks."

"Jerks?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Don't you mean prick? Or prat? Git, maybe?"

"Um, hello, you're talking to an American."

"Right, sorry."

"No harm done."

"So, yeah, he has some stories about this Cedric Diggory, but Dad glares at him every time he says something bad against him, but Dad's okay with what he says about his friends. I wonder what happened to him, Dad never said."

"Maybe he's an international mafia leader."

"Really?"

"Well, he could also be professional arsonist."

"Where do you come up with these things?"

"I'm American. What do you expect."

"Normality?"

"Ha. Ha."

"Okay, let me try. He could be. . ."

"You're taking too long. These things should come naturally, just slipping out."

"Well aren't you just the expert."

"That's good, nice and sarcastic."

"Gee, that's such a compliment, it just makes me want to light your hair on fire."

"Okay, there is such thing as overdoing the sarcasm." Mia flipped her long tawny curls and glanced at me out of the corner of her eye.

"Diggory could be a narwhal."

Mia cracked up. "That's a good one! He could be an astronaut."

"He could have because a Spanish Hermit."

"He could have moved to Canada and started a horse ranch."

"He could be dead." A new voice added from behind us.

Mia and I whirled around to see a frowning McGonagal.

"Mr. Potter, has your father not said anything about the Triwizard Tournament?" Our Headmistress looked over her glasses to glare at me.

I racked my brain, trying to think back. "He takes aside all the cousins who are in Hogwarts aside every year, by what year they're in, and talk to them about something. Two years ago, I heard him say something to Teddy about a Triwizard something or other."

Professor McGonagal nodded. "Then I suggest you don't poke fun at things you don't understand. Your father will tell you when the time comes. Until then, use that creativity for more educational purposes."

"Why would we do that?" Mia smirked. Great. "It's not like we're in school or anything."

McGonagal cracked a bit of a smile, or as close to one as she ever would. "I also suggest not being so sarcastic with your Headmistress, Miss Piper, it might land you in detention."

Mia shrugged. "Okay. Sorry, Professor."

McGonagal nodded, and then walked up to a gargoyle. She whispered something to it, and it jumped to the side.

Mia and I stood there, dumbfounded, for a few minutes, until she reached over and closed my mouth.

"Hogwarts is amazing." She breathed, looking at me.

Her gray eyes were wide, a smile growing on her face.

"It really is." I nodded.

Her smile filled her face, "So many chances to cause trouble."

"I like where this is going." I rubbed my hands together evilly.

"Don't do that." Mia slapped my hands down. "It's too cliché."

"Sorry." I ran a hand through my hair. "We'll have to wait until we know magic though."

Mia bit the right side of her lip and furrowed her brow, apparently deep in thought. "That's a good point. I mean, what's the point of pranking in a magic school if you're not using magic?"

I looked at her, a smile growing. "The point where no one knows what you're doing and how you're doing it. You're a muggle, you must know thousands of pranks, and none of the students or teachers, except for the other muggle borns maybe, will know what you're doing."

"Especially since I'm American." Mia flipped her long curls over her shoulder. "Okay, so do you know bucket of water on top of the door trick?"

"Yep. Used it on Albus more than once."

"Okay. What about tying a rubber band around a squeazy faucet rinser thing?"

"I got my dad with that on so many different times, and one time, my Grandma got sprayed so badly, because she used magic to turn it on, so the water is coming out really fast," I started laughing with Mia.

"So what are we going to do?" I asked finally as we settled down.

"Well, you have a lot of relatives, right? Did any of them play any practical jokes?"

"My uncle George had a twin brother, named Fred. They were legends. So were my grandfather on my dad's side and his friends. I think Fred once mentioned something about my mom yelling at George for telling her to blow up a toilet."

Mia's eyes lit up as she turned to me.

"Oh, no." I said. "We are not blowing up a toilet. That could get us expelled!"

"Not what I was thinking." Mia opened her mouth to say more, but then Victoire came rushing around the corner.

"James!" She brushed her hair out of her face as she let go of a flustered Fred and an amused Teddy. "I forgot to do my Arithmancy homework! Please, please, will you help me?"

I shrugged. "I don't know what arithmancy is."

"You don't need to!" Victoire took a deep breath. "Come with me, please, I have Arithmancy first thing tomorrow!"

"Uh. . ." I was cut off as Victoire grabbed my hand and let go of Fred, but held on to Teddy.

"Hey, Victoire?" Mia called. "Is it okay if I tag along? Also, I don't think Teddy is going anywhere, Fred on the other hand. . ."

Fred had been edging closer and closer to a tapestry that probably held a secret entrance. Victoire huffed, let go of me, and grabbed Fred.

She never let go of Teddy. Wonder what's going on there.

Back up in the common room, she sat us all down in front of the fire.

"Alright." She muttered, grabbing a piece of parchment and a quill.

"Will we have to write with those?" Mia asked, pointing to her quill.

"Yes, everybody does, they've been used for ages." Fred answered, as Victoire scribbled something down.

"James Sirius Potter." She muttered as she wrote down my name. "Relation: cousin."

"Why don't you just use pens? Or pencils?" Mia asked, pulling her hair back in a ponytail.

"I don't know." Fred frowned.

"J is a 1, as is an A, then M is 4." Victoire grabbed a book out of her bag.

"Wouldn't that be easier?" Mia scratched along her jaw.

"1+1+4+5+1+1+9+9+9+3+1+7+6+2+2+5+9=75, 7+5=12, 1+2=3, so James, your character number is a three." Victoire glanced up at me briefly.

"Whoopdedoo." I rolled my eyes as Victoire glared at me. "I wish we could show you Quidditch, Mia. It's amazing."

"What's it like again?"

"1+5+9+9+3+6+5=38, 3+8=11, 1+1=2. Heart number's a three." mumbled Victoire.

I ran a hand through my hair. "Well-"

"Will you stop doing that?" Mia asked. "It's annoying. Especially since your hair is messed up enough."

"My dad does it all the time, I guess its just a family habit. Anyway, there's seven players to a team in Quidditch. One keeper-"

"Like a goalie?"

"Goalie?"

"Someone who guards a goal."

"Do do doot dah dah dah." Victoire mumbled. I shot her a look before answering Mia.

"Yeah, exactly. Gryffindor keeper is my cousin Katie. Then there are chasers, who score points."

"Like forwards."

"What are forwards?"

"They're the people in the front row who go after the points."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm trying to relate this to ice hockey."

"Why?"

"I play ice hockey."

I had no clue what ice hockey was. I shot a look at Teddy, but he was watching Vic add stuff up and go flipping through a book. I next looked at Fred, but he was playing with a firework from his dad's store.

"James! Mia!" Matt burst into the common room, followed by Adrian and Elena. "There's-" He stopped short when he saw Vic, Teddy, and Fred.

"There's something cool in the library?" Mia stepped in. "Come on, let's go check it out."

She stood up and walked out the door, putting an arm around each Elena and Matt, saying, "Let's get you guys a drink of water, maybe rest a minute. You didn't have to run here, you know."

I quickly got up and followed, slipping past Vic and Teddy. By the time I got outside the common room, Mia was already interrogating Adrian and Matt. Elena looked close to tears.

"We tried to tell them they shouldn't!" Adrian burst out, as Mia buried her face in her hands.

"Shouldn't do what?" I asked, coming up beside Elena.

"Ian, John, Pheobe, and Penelope went into the Forbidden Forest!" Matt said.

"What?" My jaw dropped. "Why?"

"Ian and John were acting like pricks!" Elena sobbed.

"Pricks?" Mia asked.

"Jerks," I translated quickly. "That's not surprising, but then why?"

My voice trailed off as Adrian spoke up.

"They were acting like jerks, and then Pheobe said something like, 'If you're so brave go in there yourself!' and then Ian said, 'You guys are Gryffindors, if we go in, you go with us,'"

"We tried to tell them to stop, but they wouldn't. They went in a couple feet, then a couple more." Elena brushed away tears. Mia put her arm around the smaller girl.

"We should tell Teddy." I said.

"No!" Mia grabbed my arm. "We can't get them in trouble! They could either get expelled, or something of that sort, and seeing how they're going to be our roommates for the next seven years, I really don't want to have to deal with a grudge!"

I looked at her. "Really."

"Just come on, we'll get them ourselves."

"Uh, Mia?" Adrian pushed some of his brown hair out of his eyes. "It's called the Forbidden Forest for a reason."

"It's a bunch of trees. I spend all my free time in a forest, I've been camping since I was three, and I doubt there's anything bad in there, seeing how it's on school grounds, they wouldn't have anything horrible in there, because someone might get killed, and I doubt the teachers would want to do the paperwork." She flipped her hair over her shoulder, before tying it up in a ponytail.

"Mia." I said slowly, "This is a magic school. One of the courses you get to take later on is Care of Magical Creatures. They keep said creatures in the forest. That's why it's forbidden."

"I've done lots of stuff in the forest. I've done a lot of forbidden stuff." Mia walked away from us. "If you're not coming, that's okay with me."

I shook my head and started to run after her. "You guys stay here. If we're not back in an hour, get a teacher."

I really can't believe that girl.


	9. Chapter 9

**RANDOM PERSON WITH NO NAME derp. I'm sorry about the long wait guys, I really am, I've just had a lot of homework and other stuff going on. If you could all say a prayer for a good friend of mine who's going through something rough, that would all be great. I know you've been waiting for this update, I'll get to the lessons soon enough.**

**Mood: Cheery! I got some awesome Christmas prezzies!**

**Song That's Stuck In My Head: Viva La Vida by Coldplay**

**Diss: Hiccups. Well, not Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon, he's awesome. My aforementioned friend's alter ego is him.**

"Mia!" I jogged to catch up.

"Come on, Jimmy, don't be so slow!" She turned and smiled at me, her tone joking. "Race you!"

"Noo, Mia!" I just barely grabbed her wrist as she sped up, racing around the corner. I heard her stop.

I turned the corner, and didn't see Mia anywhere. I took two steps before being yanked behind a statue with a hand clamped over my mouth.

"We have to act like nothing's wrong!" Mia hissed.

I sighed. "Why don't we just tell McGonagal, get them in trouble?"

"Oh come on!" Mia grinned, and clapped me on the shoulder. "Where's your sense of adventure? You are a Gryffindor, aren't you?"

"Well, yes." I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Alright, let's go." I'll admit, I wasn't trying to keep the smile off my face.

Mia peeked out around the statue then jumped out. "Clear."

I hopped out behind her, trying to look cool, but I stumbled and tripped headfirst into Mia. "Smooth."

"Stuff it, will you?" I muttered, standing up and pulling on my shirt to straighten it out.

Mia rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to ask what that means, I have a general idea. Whatever, c'mon."

We jogged down the hallways, Mia making sure she was always a little ahead of me. Not that it was a challenge. I'll admit, that girl is fast.

"How do you run so fast?" I gasped, as we pushed open the doors into the courtyard.

Mia shrugged. "I run a lot at home. When I'm not at the gym, or the studio, or the rink, I'm outside."

"Why would you be at. . .?" My voice trailed off as we swerved around the fountain.

Mia picked the pace up a bit. "The gym for gymnastics, studio for dance, ice rink for hockey and figure skating. I used to play soccer, was planning on going for cross country and track, but got accepted here." A gust of wind blew her hair in her face, and she pushed it back as we ran across the covered bridge.

"What's soccer?" I gasped, a few strides behind her.

"Kinda like Quidditch on the ground, only the goalie- or Keeper- can touch the ball with their hands, everyone uses their feet mostly. Kick the ball around on the ground, get it in the net, that's a point."

"And cross country and track?"

"Cross country you run five miles. Track and field are a series of events, track you're running, field is how far can you throw, how high can you jump, how far can you jump." Mia smiled a bit. "I would run and jump as training in the forest behind my house."

We came to the edge of the forest. "Alright." I clapped my hands together. "Let's do this."

"One problem, Jimmy." Mia grabbed my arm and spun me around. "Where did they go in?"

I froze and looked off into the distance. "Oh."

"Oh, yeah." Mia huffed. "This thing is huge, do you know how long it would take to find tracks?"

"What?" I asked, looking at Mia.

"Footprints. The ground is saturated with water, remember, it rained all of yesterday. Really muddy. We find the footprints leading in the forest, follow them into the forest."

"It can't be that easy." I said, disbelieving, staring at the ground in front of me.

"Well, it is." Mia huffed.

"No," I pointed to four sets of footprints leading into the forest. "It can't be that easy."

Mia knelt down beside the tracks. "Yeah, it's definitely theirs."

"How can you tell?"

"They were probably made about half an hour ago, and this morning, Pheobe and Penelope were making a big deal about the shoes Penelope was wearing. This print here?" Mia sat back on her toes, shuffling forward, pointed to a set of tracks. "Definitely hers."

"Let's go." I said, taking a step forward.

"Careful," Mia blocked my path. "Don't cover them up, the others may need them to follow us."

"Alright." I carefully stepped around the footprints, following Mia into the forest.

It got dark, fast. What little daylight filtered through the trees was eaten by a foggy mist. Mia had a hard time following the prints, as they often disappeared.

"Crap." Mia muttered, before cursing using more colorful language. "Someone's coming, up the tree, now." She took off, getting a head start before easily swinging herself up into a tree.

I tried to imitate her movements, but didn't have enough momentum. I kicked against the bark of the tree to try and push myself up, to no avail.

"Really Jimmy?" Mia hissed, and her hand appeared in front of my face. I kicked off the tree one last time as the voices came closer, grabbing Mia's hand and helping her pull me up into the tree.

I followed her up into the tree, sometimes her boosting me up, me turning around to grab her hand and pull, sometimes the other way around. We froze as the voices entered the small clearing below us.

"It is now time for our revenge." A raspy, manly voice was directly below us.

Another voice chuckled, deeper and more confident. "Potter will regret what he has done."

"And now his eldest spawn is at Hogwarts."

I frowned. "I'm not spawn!" I hissed. Mia jabbed me sharply.

"It won't take much effort to kill him off." The raspy voice continued.

"If we can get to him. He has that annoying mudblood tripping at his heels."

Mia snorted. "More like you're tripping at my heels." I elbowed her this time, no matter how true that was.

"I keep hearing something." The deep voice says. "We do not want to be caught by the creatures in the forest. Hagrid will notice something, and the bumbling oaf will report something to the headmistress."

"He follows her like he followed Dumbledore. Wonder if the great retard has a little crush?" The raspy voice chuckled as they walked out of the clearing.

"How dare they." Mia hissed. Her fists were clenched, along with her jaw, her eyes burning with rage. Her whole body was shaking with suppressed anger.

"What's wrong?" I asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Mia took a shaky breath, and sat back against the tree. "My brother. He's autistic. You woudn't believe the things people say."

I nodded my head, figuring I wasn't going to get any more out of her. I clapped her on the shoulder. "I'm sure he's fine. And you're safe from that here."

"Which is why I would give anything to have him here with me." Mia looked at me, and it felt like her sharp gray eyes were burning through me.

"You know your eyes have a little red in them?"

I raised an eyebrow, surprised at the sudden change of topic. "What do you mean?"

"Your eyes. Around the outside, they're a greeny brown, but right around the center it's a dark reddish color."

I chuckled. "Your eyes scare me. They're gray, but at the same time, they hold so much more than that, and they just kinda look through you, seeing all your secrets."

"Are you a poet or something?"

I grinned. "Oh, what beauty doth my eyes behold? It is Juliet, and she is the sun!"

"That's not even close."

"Really? My Uncle Ron always said that, except it was Hermione instead of Juliet. A bit cheesy, but she liked it."

"Did she ever tell him he was wrong?"

"She tells him he's wrong all the time. I don't think he notices anymore."

Mia cracked up at that, making me smile too.

"Alright, get your butt out of this tree. We've got some dimwits to find."

"Why are they dimwits?" I asked Mia, almost slipping off of a branch.

Mia jumped out of the tree, past my head, flipping in midair, and landing in a roll onto her feet. She hopped slightly before turning to me. "Because they came in here."

"Doesn't that make us-"

"No, we're brave because we came in here looking for them, instead of going into here to prove they're brave or something."

I fell awkwardly onto my feet, collapsing onto my knees. I got up, and brushed myself off, trying to hide the blush.

"It's no use, your face is redder than a tomato."

That didn't help.

"Now it's the color of beets."

I could tell by Mia's tone that she wasn't trying to be rude, just observing how my face turned from the color of one vegetable to another.

"Alright, let's go find them."

Mia surveyed the clearing. She pointed to a path right across from us. "That's where we came in." She turned to our right, the other path leading out of the clearing. "That's where the men came from and left." She turned to behind us, across from the second path.

"That's where they went. Check out those footprints. Too small to be either guys', and there's three sets. But where. . ." Mia's voice trailed off.

"Those are exactly like Penelope's, and the other two have to be Ian's and John's."

"I can't believe they would be as stupid as to get separated." Mia huffed. "There's no sign of a fourth set up here."

"What's that noise?" I asked sharply, cutting her off from whatever she was going to say next.

Mia frowned. "Are there horses here?"

I shrugged. "Might not be just horses though."

Mia's eyes widened. She wasn't looking at me though.

"What, what'd I do?" I turned around, and came face to face- well, more like face to chest, of a giant man.

I stumbled backwards. That's not a man that was behind me, that was a-

"Centaur." Mia breathed.

"I noticed." I whispered. Mia whacked me in the head.

"What are you younglings doing in the forest?"

"Our friends came in here." Mia stepped forward, standing tall with confidence. "Two girls, two boys. Have you seen them?"

"We are currently taking them to Hagrid's hut." The centaur glanced over his shoulder. "Bring them up."

Ian and John were roughly shoved up to the front of the herd. A female centaur walked up behind them, carrying Pheobe and Penelope on her back, both with tear stained faces.

"Are these the peers you're looking for?"

"These aren't the droids you're looking for." Mia whispered under her breath, trying not to laugh.

I shot a glance at her, wondering what she was doing, before turning back to the centaur. "Uh, yeah. Thanks."

Another lady centaur walked up to Mia and offered her her hand. Mia grabbed it and easily settled herself onto the horse back.

Mia reached out to me. "C'mon, Jimmy."

I took a step forward, and was roughly pushed back. "You and the other boys will walk. You coerced the young women to come in here unwillingly."

Mia raised her hand. "Actually, I was the one who coerced Jimmy- wait, what does coerced mean?"

The centaur looked at Mia. "Convinced."

"Then yeah, I convinced Jimmy to come in here. To look for the others. He agreed to it."

The centaur moved out of my way. "Go ahead then."

I ran a few steps to Mia, and grabbed her hand. She easily pulled me onto the back of the centaur.

I looked around Mia to see what she was holding onto. She had laced her fingers into some hair where the mane would be on a normal horse. She was sitting straight up, so I tried to mimic what she was doing.

"Relax." Mia hissed to me. "Sit up straight, but not awkwardly. It's just like riding a horse."

"I've never ridden a horse before."

"Well then you're about to get a crash course. Hold on."

"To what?!"

"Me!" Mia hissed. I awkwardly looped my arms around her waist, right as the lady centaur reared and took off running.

"Holy!" I squeezed Mia tight, trying not to swear as the our ride looped around trees, ducking under branches. I glanced over my shoulder. Ian and John were being dragged along by some centaurs, not being able to keep up with the fast moving herd. As we came closer to Hagrid's hut, it became easier and easier to see the figures of Elena, Matt, Adrian, Hagrid, Professor Longbottom and Professor McGonagal.

"Uh oh." I heard Mia mutter.

"Uh oh is right." I muttered back.

"We're in some deep doodoo."

"No duh- wait, doodoo? Really?"


	10. Chapter 10

****** Random Person with No Name did not disappear off the face of the earth, don't worry. My internet, however, apparently has. On my computer, at least. My tablet still has wifi. :) I am so so sorry for the long wait, guys, I really am. I had a research paper to turn in, and scheduling, and a lot of other stuff and this a really lame excuse/apology but I hope you guys will accept it. Also, I'm not sure it will show up when there's a tab in, since I'm doing this the copy paste way, so if the paragraphs are a little weird then the only thing to blame for that is Fanfiction, which we all love anyway.**

****** Song That's Stuck in my Head: All Too Well by Taylor Swift**

****** Mood: annoyed at this dumb tablet**

****** Diss: The emoji keyboard was too small so I changed it and now when I try to hit a button it's not how I'm used to. Space bar is a little farther away than my thumbs will cooperate.**

The centaurs dropped us off in front of McGonagal, Hagrid, Professor Longbottom, an extremely angry Teddy, and a sheepish looking Elena, Matt, and Adrian.

"You were gone more than an hour." Adrian cringed as Mia came up to stand beside me. I didn't have to look at her to know she was giving Adrian a 'you will regret this' glare.

"What were you thinking!" Teddy burst out. I cringed when I heard him yell, because Teddy never looses his cool. Ever. Except for now.

"Mr. Lupin." Professor McGonagal said sharply, not taking her eyes off of the six of us.

"What were you guys doing?" I had never seen Professor Longbottom look so upset in his life. Not even when Lorcan and Lysander somehow accidentally set his pants on fire.

"Being brave." Ian flipped his hair out of his eyes.

"More like being stupid." Mia snorted.

"What does that make you then?"

"Smart, because we found where you went in, tracked your footprints, hid from some creepy old guys plotting to kill Jimmy, and convinced some centaurs that I convinced Jimmy to come in here - not that he needed much coercing - and scored a free ride. All without crying, and don't deny it, John, your face is tear-stained."

"Regardless, Miss Piper, you all broke the rules and will have to suffer the consequences. Now, Mr. Thompson and Mr. Chambers, since you pressured Miss Odds and Miss Chamberlain into entering the forest, detention, for the first month of school, every weekday evening, you will reporting to Mr. Filch. Miss Odds and Miss Chamberlain, tonight, come to my office and you will be writing lines. Nothing too harsh, girls, now go inside and get yourselves cleaned up. Mr. Potter and Miss Piper." The old headmistress turned and glared at us. "My office. Immediately."

* * *

I gulped as we rode the stairs up to Professor McGonagal's office.

"Take a seat, both of you." The headmistress sat down behind her desk. She held out a container of biscuits. "Take some."

Mia shrugged and grabbed a biscuit. I raised an eyebrow at her and turned back to McGonagal. "I'll pass, thank you."

"Don't be ridiculous." Professor McGonagal sniffed. I hesitantly reached out my hand and took a biscuit.

She took one herself, and enjoyed it as Mia and I kept glancing at each other.

"You are in trouble, just not at the moment." Professor McGonagal smirked slightly. "Mr. Potter, I do believe you've broken your father's record."

"Record for what?" I asked. What was she talking about?

"Record for getting in trouble."

"Actually, Minerva, Potter still holds that record." A dark, greasy haired man with black eyes smirked in a portrait. "As soon as they arrived on premises they crashed into the Whomping Willow."

"Who?" Mia asked.

"Your friend's father, Harry Potter, and his best friend, Ron Weasely." Another portrait spoke up, this one featured a man with incredibly long, gray hair, with a phoenix on his shoulder. "They got in so much trouble together. Just like you two will, I predict."

"Who are you?" Mia asked. "Not to be rude, sorry, but you as well, who are you?" Mia turned back to the greasy black-haired man's portrait.

"I am Severus Snape." The man sat up a bit straighter. "Last headmaster before Minerva McGonagal, former Potions Master, one of the best in the world, murderer of Albus Dumbledore and I loved your grandmother, James, Lily Evans." The man, Snape, collapsed his posture and clapped a hand to his face. "Minerva, you really need to remove whatever charm makes me say that every time."

"Oh, I don't know Severus." The gray-haired man pet his phoenix as he chuckled in amusement. "I find it rather funny."

"Is that a phoenix?" Mia asked the gray-haired man.

He turned his attention to her, startled. "Why, yes, his name is Fawkes. And to answer your previous question, I am Albus Dumbledore."

"So you two are my brother's namesakes." I thought, and when everyone turned and looked at me I realized I said it aloud. "My little brother, his name is Albus Severus. We call him Al, and. . ." I trailed off when I saw the look on Mia's face. "What, it's true."

"I'm not saying it isn't, just the look on your face was funny when you realized you were talking aloud, and I was looking to see how far you would go before shutting up."

"What do you mean?"

"You were embarrassing yourself."

"Was not."

"Take it from me, Jimmy, you were so embarrassing yourself."

"So what if I was?"

"You're still calling him Jimmy?" Teddy and Professor Longbottom stood smirking inside the door. "Is that his new nickname? How'd that all start, anyway?"

"On the train." We said at the same time. Professor Longbottom chuckled as Teddy's smile grew.

"Oh, it always starts on the train." Teddy grinned. "I met Peter and Mallory on the train, Victoire literally ran into her first crush on the train -"

"And how do you know about that?" Mia sat up straight and crossed her arms.

Professor Longbottom smirked before continuing, "She also had her first kiss on the train, and correct me if I'm wrong, Ted, but wasn't that -"

"So, totally not me." Teddy's hair turned a bright pink. "Absolutely not. With all due respect, Professor, you are -"

"Completely right?" Mia looked at Teddy skeptically.

Teddy's hair turned a darker pink, as did his face. "Shut up."

"Mr. Potter." The portrait of Dumbledore spoke up, turning all of our attentions to him. "Please thank your father on behalf of me for naming is son after me."

"As well me." The Snape portrait said.

"Can I have another cookie?" Mia half raised her hand. As we all turned to look at her, she slowly put her hand down and looked at her lap. "I'll take that as a no."

The headmistress held out the container of biscuits - cookie must mean biscuit - and smiled, before assuming a more serious look. "However, I called you in here because of something you said, Mia. Something about hiding from creepy old guys who were plotting to kill Ji- James?"

I nodded, and glanced at Mia, as she started talking. "Something about revenge on Potter, and now his spawn's at Hogwarts- I had to smack him at that point, he was all 'I'm not spawn!'- well, anyway, then they said something about how it wouldn't be too hard to kill him, especially with a mudblood tripping at his heels, which is totally not true-"

"I'm tripping at your heels." I nodded, grimacing.

"How many times has that been, with the whole mudblood thing, since I arrived in Britain, there was once on the platform, then Teddy yelled at me for saying it on the train, something about it being illegal?"

"You can get sent to Azkaban." Teddy nodded.

"Depending on how it's used." Professor Longbottom corrected.

"Don't know what that is, but alright, then the same guys caught us in the hallways when we were heading back to the dorm, and then in the forest."

"Miss Piper, please focus."

"Right sorry, so then the one guy said he heard something, that they wouldn't want to get caught by Hagrid, and that he follows you around like he followed Dumbledore." Mia had clenched her fists, and I figured she was doing everything she could to not burst out and start swearing at the two men in the forest because of what they said.

"Alright. Thank you, both of you." Professor McGonagal finished writing down something and handed it to Professor Longbottom. "Please take this to Hagrid."

"Now." The headmistress turned back to us, a mischievous glint in her eye. "I do believe your punishment is now our topic of conversation."

"Here's an idea, how 'bout we don't have one!" Mia said brightly, a big smile on her face.

"Here's an idea, no." I had to snicker as Professor McGonagal glared at Mia. "Two weeks in detention, every school night. Meet Mr. Filch at his office and he will direct you to some sort of cleaning chore. You will leave your wands in your dorms."

"We don't know any cleaning charms anyway." I pointed out.

"Doesn't matter." Headmistress McGonagal put the lid on the biscuit container with shaky hands. "Now back to your dorms."

"You guys should feel lucky." Teddy said to us on the way out. "Normally people would get much worse."

"Mr. Lupin, do not forget, Miss Weasely, the one you fancy, is back in the dorms and is probably now well aware of what has happened."

"I don't fancy her, oh my gosh!" Teddy threw his hands up in the air as he walked out of the office.

"Miss Piper, Mr. Potter," McGonagal said to us as we went to follow Teddy. "It would be in everyone's best interests if you keep the men in the forest to yourselves."

Mia and I both nodded before heading out the door as Professor Longbottom closed the door behind us.

"Well classes start tomorrow." Mia turned to me and grinned. "How d'you want to get in trouble then?"

"You're kidding, right?" I looked at her, eyebrows raised.

Mia had a wickedly mischievous smile on her face, but her eyes remained cold as ice. "What do you think?"

"I think Victoire will murder us if we try anything else."

"Occupational hazard." Mia shrugged.

"Of course." I muttered. "I've been saying that quite a bit, haven't I?"

"Dunno." Mia flipped her hair over her shoulder as she looked back at me. "Don't really listen to what comes out of your mouth."

"Very funny." I glared at Mia's back.

"Sorry, what was that?"

"Oh my gosh."


	11. Chapter 11

**Random Person with No Name has pretty much the same excuse as everyone else on this site. I've had school, friends issues, family issues, boyfriend issues, choir drama, more school, sickness, finals, and an online course. This has taken me about a month, I guess, to type this up. I've also been going back and fixing a huge amount of mistakes. I'm so sorry guys, I didn't realize how many continuity issues there would be. There's some bits that I added a couple lines to, or changed them, but they don't have an effect on the storyline. If you've been worried about how slow the pace has been in the storyline itself, because I do admit, it's only been, what, 3 days? And this is the eleventh chapter. The pace is going to pick up majorly from here on out, I expect. Probably one more chapter that focuses on James and his friends in their classes, and then hopefully we'll get into how James's school life will be affected by the popularity of his cousins and his dad's fame, as the plot thickens. So that's just something to look forward to. I don't know if the revisions I've been doing show up as updates and you guys get alerts, but if it has, I'm really sorry.**

**Mood: Tired of typing**

**Song That is Stuck in my Head: I don't know the title and I don't want to because the entire time the guy is whining and moaning, asking the girl if she's going to San Francisco, and if she does to wear some flowers in her hair. I hate that song with a passion, but for some demented insane reason my mom likes it.**

**Diss: Curly hair. Because it's dang sexy. And Fred and George don't have it, which makes me sad. Percy has it though! And so does Hugo! I love all of them so much, it's borderline obsessive. . .**

The rest of that day was uneventful, save Brigit getting fed up with Adam's antics and flinging mashed potatoes at him.

The next day we woke up bright and early for classes, as wide eyed and bushy tailed as a zombie mob.

There were some people down in the common room, quietly chatting as they waited for someone or sat in front of the fire finishing up some last minute homework.

We only got lost once on the staircases heading down to the Great Hall, but I was too worried about getting my eyes to stay open to linger on that.

I flopped down next to Adam, and Brigit and Mia were across from us. Brigit was reading the Daily Prophet, and Mia was inhaling some french toast while looking over Brigit's shoulder at that morning's paper.

"I'm never going to get over the pictures moving." Mia shook her head, her wild hair flying everywhere.

Penelope laughed next to me. I jumped, not knowing she was there. "You'll get used to them, Mia. By the way, you forgot to brush your hair this morning, but don't worry I have a brush here."

Mia gave Penelope the strangest look. "I did brush my hair. It's just curly."

Iris laughed from next to Pheobe, who was on the other side of Penelope. "Mia, that's not curly, that's a bad hair day. Or a style from the 80's, take your pick."

Mia rolled her eyes. "It's called humidity and rain. Seeing how it never stops in Britain, that's what causing this very fashionable 80's do."

The other girls laughed, and I pressed my hands over my ears to keep the high pitched giggles from penetrating my ears.

"James, come on, you gotta eat something." Teddy had appeared over my shoulder. "Look alive, mate, trust me the fist day's the worst. 'Scuse me." He looked over at Penelope, Phoebe, and Iris, and they scooted over obediently, before Teddy sat down next to me.

"I'm not looking forward to classes." I moaned, burying my head in my arms.

"Come on, man, have some eggs."

"I don't like eggs."

"How about pancakes?"

"I'm not hungry."

"You like bacon."

"Don't make me hex you."

"I would heed your warning if you knew how. Now up, at least have waffles. Everyone likes waffles."

"I don't like waffles." Adam pointed out.

"That's because you're weird." Teddy poked me in the shoulder, and I groaned, sitting up.

"Is he always like this?" Mia had a wicked grin on her face.

"Every morning." Teddy nodded. "Come on, James, ya gotta eat something."

"Oh, don't worry yourself, Teddy." Mia still had that wicked smile. "How about orange juice, Jimmy?"

"No." I reached for some toast. "You'll pour it on me."

Mia's smile faltered. Teddy chuckled, "I've done it before to him. Doesn't work too well in your favor."

Mia shrugged. "Was worth a shot."

I finished my toast, and I noticed people starting to filter out of the hall to different lessons. "We should probably go." I stood up and dusted off my robes, Mia spinning around the bench and popping up across the table. Adam got up next to me, still holding an english muffin, and Mia looked to Brigit.

"You go ahead, I'm waiting for Connor." Brigit smiled briefly at Mia, before eating another spoon of cereal.

I looked at Adam, and we looked at Mia, who was looking at me, and then she shrugged. We left Brigit sitting there and started walking to the doors.

It took us a bit, but by wandering around a bit we found our way to the greenhouses. We sat there, talking, and Professor Longbottom had walked in, about to start the lesson, when Brigit banged through the door. Several of the Hufflepuffs snickered, and I waved her over to where we had saved her a seat.

"What took you so long, Brigit?" Adam hissed. I stepped on his foot lightly under the table. Brigit looked upset, and hadn't looked up at us yet.

"Got lost." She whispered. The tremble in her voice made us other three share a concerned look.

"Brigit," Mia started.

"Don't, Mia." Brigit snapped. "Pay attention."

Mia opened her mouth to snap at her, but I kicked her under the table. She glared at me, as if to say, 'I can talk if I want to,' but I shot her a look back, saying in my mind, 'She's upset, leave it.'

"Will you two stop doing that?" Adam hissed.

"Stop doing what?" I asked, as Mia looked at Adam funny. I traded a glance at her, and we both shrugged.

"That thing. That thing where you talk but in your minds, sorta thing, like tally- telly-" Adam licked his lips. "The telephone thing."

Mia looked at him even stranger. "Telephone? Don't you mean telepathy?"

"While the subject of telepathy is no doubt fascinating, Miss Piper, Mr. Docker, and Mr. Potter, please refrain from talking when I'm talking, thank you." Professor Longbottom said, while on his hands and knees, pulling a heavy pot out from under his desk. "This, my friends, is an extremely rare type of fungi."

As if on cue, everyone leaned forward, exited.

"Not really. They're just mushrooms."

We all humphed and leaned back in our seats. I saw Mia roll her eyes, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Today's lesson is on the proper use of dragon dung fertilizer."

That got my interest. Mia's too, apparently, because we shared a look.

"I'm going to say right now, you get detention if you participate in a dung fight."

I sighed, and glanced again at Mia. She raised an eyebrow. I shrugged. If she really wanted to. . .

She smirked, knowing I had caved. I rolled my eyes, and went to the front and grabbed a pot of mushrooms and a large bag of fertilizer. Man, did this stuff reek.

Mia came forward to help me lug the bag back to the table, after she had tossed our stuff under the desk. She gagged a bit at the smell.

"On second thought, lets forget it." She managed, before dropping the bag and bending forward, obviously trying not to puke.

"Oh come on, Mia, this stuff's not that bad." She glared at me over her shoulder before gagging again. Luckily, she didn't actually throw up.

"Any of you who want nose plugs, they're right up here." Professor Longbottom shouted, before walking over to where Mia was bent over. "You alright, Mia?"

I stood there awkwardly, as Mia shakily nodded, and straitened up. I was surprised when I saw just how green her face really was.

"Would noseplugs help?" I shifted my weight awkwardly. I just about ran up to Professor Longbottom's desk to grab them, happy to get away from Mia. Quite honestly, I did not want to be around if she barfed.

After that slight fiasco, the lesson went by uneventfully. Mia did her best not to breathe in any fumes of the fertilizer, but she made endless fun of my reaction when one of the Hufflepuffs, Clayton Thorpe, ended up puking.

"Your face was hilarious!" Mia was still laughing as we walked up through the castle.

"I'm sorry!" I gasped, trying not to laugh. "I don't like puke! Besides, you almost rakked all over the floor just like he did! That could've been you!"

"And I wouldn't have gone to the hospital wing like a pussy!" Mia laughed, tossing her long hair out of her face.

Some of the passing Hufflepuffs glared at us because of Mia's last comment, but I ignored them. Mia didn't even notice.

"What've we got next?" Mia asked, as I glanced over my shoulder behind us at Brigit and Adam, who had stopped and were arguing.

"Jimmy." Her insistent tone made me turn around. She didn't look at me, but past me where Brigit and Adam were standing. "Give them some space."

I glanced again over my shoulder.

"C'mon, Jimmy. Time for Charms."

I reluctantly follow, and didn't bother saying anything. Mia had zoned out too.

I stopped at the doors of the entrance hall, and Mia turned and looked at me. I rummaged around in my bag. "Where is Charms, anyway?"

Mia bit her lip. "I don't know. Do you have a map?"

"I thought you had one."

"Guilty of the same."

"So we have no clue where we're going."

"Yeah, pretty much."

Mia walked through the entrance hall and up the first flight of stairs leading to the Grand Staircase. "What floor is it on?"

"We would need a map to figure that out."

"Dang it, Jimmy!" Mia through her hands up in the air and started chewing on her lip again.

"We're going to be late." I ran a hand through my hair, trying to figure out a solution.

"Can one of your cousins help us?"

I almost dropped my bag in excitement. "Teddy has a study hall this period!"

Mia grinned. "Uh, study hall is either in the Library or the Great Hall."

"Let's hope Great Hall, cause I don't know where the library is." I walked over to the doors of the Great Hall, and Mia and I pried one open big enough for us to slip through.

I had gotten my bag snagged on the door and pulled it free as Mia huffed. "What?" I asked.

"I don't see him."

I glanced around for any bright shock of hair. Teddy changed up his hair often, but it was always something bright. Whether it was a normal color like blonde or brown, it would stick out because it was almost luminescent. I found him after a moment. "He's over here. Come on."

"There's no one in here with blue hair." Mia snapped at me, but she followed me all the same.

"Teddy's a metamorphmagus, remember? He can wear his hair however he wants."

"Awesome. But where is he?"

Teddy looked up at us and smirked. "Hey James, Mia."

Mia's jaw dropped. I snickered as she took in Teddy's appearance.

His hair was a dark brown, and thick and shiny, with the tips a light orange, so it wouldn't stick out too much. He had some stubble growing out of his chin, and unlike Grandpa Weasley, it worked well in his favor. Mallory was sitting next to him, almost clinging to him, staring over at his textbook, when she had her own in her bag. His eyes today were a dark blue, to match Uncle Ron's, but as Mia was getting over her shock, he changed them to a gray that matched hers, but were just. . . different.

"Holy-" Mia muttered.

"Yeah, yeah, get over it." I snapped. I felt kinda bad about it, especially at the look she gave me, but it was just Teddy and his eyes matching Mia's that was putting me on edge. "We don't know where the Charms classroom is."

Teddy laughed. "Don't you have the Marauder's Map?"

Mia crossed her arms and glared at me. I shifted uncomfortably as I reached around into my bag and pulled it out.

She rolled her eyes. "Idiot."

I shrugged. "Sorry."

Mallory smiled softly. "Get to class, you two. You don't want to be late. 5 minutes left."

Mia nodded, and I followed her out, stopping to pull out my wand once. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

"James!" Teddy came up behind me. "The Charms room is on the fourth floor. And, if you see Vic. . ."

"What?" I was thoroughly confused at the look on his face.

"Tell her I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"None of your business. She'll know what it means." He heaved a sigh and ran his hand through his hair in a way reminiscent of me and my dad. "Make sure you tell her before classes are over though."

"Alright." I was still confused, but Mia was holding the door opened, and Teddy clapped his hand on my shoulder before heading back to Mallory.

"Come on, Mia." I passed her.

"Jimmy, look." She grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back into the Great Hall. She pointed me in the direction of Teddy.

Suddenly Teddy's message made a lot more sense.

He was wrapped up in a kiss with Mallory Finnegan.


	12. Chapter 12

**Random Person with No Name hopes to update more often than I have been this summer and next school year, even though I'm currently taking summer courses so I don't have to sit in class, going to music camp, girl scout camp, joining theater next year, taking less honors classes, Youth Symphony, Youth Ministry council, Tri-M recitals/inductions stuff, and that's just the stuff I can foresee. . . I'm not Trelawny. So just so you guys know, this is going to be the last sort of exposition chapter, as I've said before. You've met James, you've met his family, you've met who is going to become his best friend, you've seen his other friends, you've seen him in classes, you've gotten to see bits of all of their personalities. This chapter is where everything is going to start picking up. I do a lot of planning ahead for this story, so if you have any ideas at all I would love to hear them. I have stuff planned for all their other years at Hogwarts, but in order for it to actually make it into the story, you have to let me know. I have everything you could possibly think of- including an awkward but hilarious Drarry moment- but I'm not going to write it if you don't tell me that's something you want to read. So if you think of something you want to see happen with any character, send me a pm, I'd love to hear from you.**

**Mood: Tired. This online class is taking its toll.**

**Song that's Stuck in my Head: He Could Be the One, by Hannah freaking Montana. Kill. Me. Now.**

**Diss: Again, the online course. It started out easy. Now we have to write an essay. . .**

My jaw dropped. I glanced over at Mia, and she looked back over at me.

"We should get to class." She said eventually.

"Yeah." I muttered, and we headed out the door. I took one last glance over my shoulder at Teddy and Mallory. She looked positively blissful. He looked happy too, smiling along with her, but I knew Ted well enough that he was hiding just a tinge of regret.

"Does his hair normally get darker when he's kissing someone?" Mia asked.

I couldn't help but laugh. "No, when he's upset about something, like he feels betrayed, or if he's betrayed someone, or if he lied, you can immediately tell because his hair gets a shade or two darker. It's surprising that you noticed, only Dad and I have been able to see it. Maybe Lily, my little sister, too. And Vic. . ."

My voice trailed off. I looked helplessly as we walked up the Grand Staircase.

"There's nothing you can do." Mia said softly. She bit her lip again, and cracked her neck.

"Ew," I shuddered.

"What," Mia laughed. "Something else that's gonna make you sick?" She proceeded to crack all of her knuckles.

"Aaah, stop it!" I covered my ears. "That freaks me out!"

"Why?" Mia snickered, and turned into a hallway that I had missed, as I had continued up the next flight of stairs. I quickly backtracked and caught up with Mia, who was still snickering.

"I don't know, actually." I muttered, running a hand through my hair. "Teddy and Al do it all the time. So does my mom. It just drives me and Lily nuts."

"Who's Al, again?"

"Little brother. You got any siblings- whoa!" I stumbled as she grabbed the back of my collar and pulled me through another doorway, heading over to the door where Professor Flitwick was.

"Just my brother. He's older than me, but only by about a year. I'm not sure how the school thing works with the birthdays and ages here, but he would either be in 2nd or 3rd year."

"When's his birthday?"

"Late August, the 27th."

"How old is he?"

"He just turned 13."

"So yeah, he'd be in 3rd year."

"Really? In America, he's only in the grade above me, but our summer vacation ends earlier than it does here. My brother was so mad when I got to sit around until his birthday, while he was in school."

"Alright, settle down now, calm yourselves." Professor Flitwick had taken his place at the front of the classroom. "Is everyone here?"

I was about to point out Brigit and Adam's absence, when the door opened with a bang, and Adam came in, looking severely angry, and Brigit looking close to tears.

"Crap." Mia hissed. "I had forgotten about what was going on with them."

"Well, I think Adam figured it out."

"Whatever it is, he's not happy about it. Wonder what could've made him that mad?"

"No clue."

"It's a good thing the bell hasn't rung yet." Flitwick said, steadying the pile of books he was standing on. "I wouldn't want to dock points on the first day. Why are you nearly late?"

"Got a bit held up." Adam cast a dark look at Brigit, and she took a breath to steady herself.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Penelope and Phoebe exchange looks. Phoebe discreetly slipped out of her seat, into the row directly behind me, and slip into the seat.

"That was nice of her." Mia whispered to me.

"Thanks Mia!" Phoebe hissed.

"They definitely do not want to sit together." I muttered. "Quick thinking, Phoebe."

The small girl blushed slightly and brushed a stray dark blonde hair out of her face.

"Well, take your seats." Flitwick said, waving at Phoebe and Penelope.

Brigit quickly walked to the desk already containing Phoebe, and the latter girl shifted a bit, acting as if she had always been in that seat. I could hear Brigit take several deep breaths, as she was sitting behind me.

Mia bent down like she was rummaging in her bag, and snuck a look at Adam. "He's not happy. He's sitting behind Phoebe, looking like he's trying to kill Brigit with just a look."

I bent down to move my bag out of the aisle, and snuck a look in the same manner as Mia. Adam, however, caught me, and turned his glare at me as I raised my hands in surrender and turned back to the front.

"Now, students, we are just going to be learning some basic theory work so you can learn to use your wands properly before learning any real spells. I am passing out a small booklet," Flitwick waved his wand, sending paper pamphlets out to each of us. "They are on wand safety. There is a small section on different ways you can hold your wand, because no two wands are alike. Because each of you, and each of your wands are different, each of you are going to hold slightly different. Wands out, working with the person next to you, figure out a way for you that is comfortable to manage your wand. Off you go."

I turned to Mia and grinned. "Ladies first."

"Then that means you."

"You're saying you're a boy?"

"Dang, Jimmy, you got me there." Mia playfully scowled and crossed her arms, before producing her wand out of nowhere.

"Where did that come from?" I was thoroughly perplexed at the appearance of Mia's wand.

It was a grayish color, slightly green, and although it was polished smooth, the wood gave it a weathered, beaten down appearance. The handle was carved with little leaves and surprisingly, small flowers.

"That's for me to know, and you to not." Mia said happily. "A magician never gives away their secrets."

"What are you talking about?"

"Muggle saying. Muggles have magicians, as form of entertainment, but really, all it is is slight of hand, mirrors, and smoke."

"You comfortable with that grip?"

"Yeah, I guess. Your turn."

I pulled my wand out of my back pocket, and turned it in my hand. "I haven't fussed with it much. I threatened to hex Al once, and my mom took it away and put it in its box and locked it up."

"You don't know how to hex someone."

"I've done accidental magic before. Al was in St. Mungo's- wizarding hospital- for a week. He's terrified of what I'll be able to do with a wand, whether I know anything or not."

"Oh wow." Mia laughed slightly. "Oh, hey, what if you moved your thumb into that little hollow thing?"

I shifted my hand as she mentioned, and the wand fit perfectly, just like it had in Ollivanders. "Perfect." I smiled a bit, looking down at my wand.

It was a lighter wand, of a reddish yellow color, almost pink. It was mainly a pale yellow, very close to white, but had little streaks of red running through it, because of the red oak. The handle wasn't anything special, it had a little spindly thing at the bottom of the handle, like what you would find on a staircase banister, and a little ring of a darker red where the handle ended. The handle itself had several dips and groves in it, for me to grip, because if the handle was a smooth and polished as the rest of the wand, it would constantly be slipping out of my hands.

"So did he ever get revenge?"

"What?" Mia's question caught me off guard.

"Al. Did he ever get revenge?"

"He got some help from Arthur, and pranked me pretty good. I got him back after that."

"What did he do?"

"Can't remember. We've just had one endless prank war for as long as I can remember. Most of the time, his pranks are turning a prank of mine around on me, like having it backfire, because somehow most of the time he knows what I'm doing and makes it spring on me."

"Clever."

"Annoying is more like it. I don't know how he does it. He just sits in his room all day, reading a book. Rarely speaks to anyone but my cousins, Rose, Hugo, and Will."

"Well you have to admit, if he always knows what you're doing, that's pretty good."

I shrugged. Honestly, I loved Al to bits, but he concerned me. He knows just the right buttons to push to make me lose my Weasley temper and flip out at him. "He's conniving, that's for sure."

Mia sent a calculating look my way, and probably would have said something, but Professor Flitwick called our attention back to the front. We were all a bit antsy, and he lectured us on our wands for the rest of the period. Mia scribbled down notes every once in a while, seemingly not paying attention much, and I scribbled furiously on my parchment. Before we knew it, the bell was ringing, and we were off for a free period and Flitwick was calling after us the homework. That, Mia actually wrote down.

"You write down the homework, but none of the lecture?" I smirked as we headed to the Great Hall.

"I don't know. If you needed me to, I could recite the lecture to you word for word this second, every bit of it. But if you asked me to tell you the homework for Herbology, I'd have no clue."

"That's weird." I said, shoving a quill in my bag.

"Yeah. Hey, isn't that one of your cousins?" Mia pointed up ahead to a head in the crowd, glossy red hair flowing just past her shoulders.

"Oh, yeah, that's Vic. I should tell her Ted's message." I took a deep breath. "I don't want Arthur at my funeral. Please make sure of that."

"What is with you and Arthur?"

"He turned my teddy bear into a rat when I was three." I started pushing past people, trying to get to Victoire. "Never forgave him for it. Vic! Hey Vic!"

Victoire turned, saw me, and waved. I motioned her over, and she slipped to the edge of passing students along the wall. I caught up with her, Mia in tow.

"Vic." I took a deep breath, trying to stop shaking. I'm sorry, but Victoire is downright terrifying sometimes.

"Hey James. Enjoying your first day?" She smiled brightly, and looked over my shoulder. "Mia, right?"

"Uh, yeah." Mia shifted from foot to foot, biting her lip. "Uh, I'm just gonna be in the Great Hall, Jimmy."

"Yeah, sure." I muttered. "Later. I got the Herbology assignment, I'll trade it for the Charms?"

"Yeah. Catch up later." Mia disappeared, but I was so nervous about telling Vic, I watched her walked down the hall, her tawny hair visible between some of the older students.

"James?" Vic asked me. "Was there something you needed, cause if not, I have a load of homework.

"Uh, yeah." I ran a hand through my hair, before rubbing the back of my neck. "Can I- uh, can we talk? Somewhere- ya'know, private?"

Vic gave me a quizzical look, before turning and beckoning me after her. I followed her through several corridors, before stopping in an abandoned classroom.

"What's going on James? It's not that girl, is it?" Vic had taken on a protective tone, and I knew she was gearing up.

"No!" I burst out a little too quickly. "No," I said again, twisting my fingers. I winced as one of them cracked. "No, it's about Teddy. He-" I took a deep breath.

"What did Teddy do that's got you this spooked?" Vic looked at me with concerned blue eyes. They weren't the usual Weasley blue eyes, though. They were more turquoise. Like Teddy's favorite hair color.

"He gave me a message, to tell you." I took a deep breath. "I'm spooked because- well, you're terrifying."

Vic laughed slightly. "So what's going on, Jay?"

I smiled slightly at the childhood nickname that only my parents, Al, Lily, and Vic had ever used. "He told me to tell you he's sorry."

Vic frowned. "What?"

I shrugged nervously, before rubbing the back of my neck again. "He told me to tell you he's sorry. I asked him why, he said it was none of my business. Said you would know. Vic-"

"After he told you this, what did he do?" Vic snapped. She looked genuinely put off guard.

"He, um. . . Vic,"

"Jay."

"He- oh, gosh Vic, I'm sorry." I shifted uncomfortably, running a hand through my hair.

"James Sirius Potter, you answer me right now."

"He kissed Mallory Finnegan."

Vic's jaw dropped, before she covered her mouth with her hand, collapsing into the seat behind her.

"Vic, I'm sorry, I told him I would, please don't kill me, Vic-"

She cut me short with a sob. I was totally put off guard, and just stared at her.

A crying Victoire happened only once before, when Teddy told her when we were all little kids. It was one of my earliest memories, I was 4, Ted was 9. Vic was 7. Ted had told her he didn't want to be her cousin, and she got really upset, until Teddy explained he wanted to be her best friend, not her cousin. They had smiled at each other, and Teddy jugged her, before grabbing her hand and they ran off into Aunt Hermione's rose garden.

I awkwardly pat Victoire's shoulder, and tried not to gape. Her eyes were all screwed shut, letting only a couple tears squeeze past. I rubbed the back of my neck, and said, "There, there," because this was Victoire and she's only ever cried once since she was a baby and I had no clue as to what I was supposed to do.

Vic launched herself at me then, catching me totally off guard. She was about a head taller than me, so it was really kinda awkward to have her sobbing into my shoulder.

"Now, come on, Vic, it's just Teddy." I muttered awkwardly, managing to squirm out of her grasp. "Do you want some chocolate?"

Vic wiped away her remaining tears and just stared at me, disbelieving.

"Dad's number one rule." I ran a hand through my hair. "Always have chocolate on you."

"Do you know why that is, Jay?" Vic whispered.

"Uh, no."

"It's because Ted's dad was a werewolf. He would often eat a lot of chocolate to ease the pain of pre-transformation sickness, and afterwards as well, when he wasn't at his best. Teddy inherited that addiction, so Uncle Harry always carried chocolate with him in case Teddy got in a bad mood."

"Really?" My eyes were pretty wide by the time Vic had finished. I shrugged.

"I just like chocolate."


	13. Chapter 13

**Random Person with No Name is thrilled! WOOHOO! The pace is about to pick up. I gotta admit, I'm really excited. Music camp's been doing well, I've actually gathered up the courage to talk to people this year! Though it is rather depressing, I think my carpool thinks the only thing interesting about me is all the stories I have of when I've been clutzy and hurt myself. They take joy in my pain. Also, if any of you have any good questions that are not yes/no about being a music teacher, send them in, I'm working on a school course and I need them. I'm starting something new though, so check out the author's note at the end of the chapter.**

**Mood: Ecstatic. Watching Legolas shield surf down a flight of stairs got me screaming, "YES! YES! GO! WIN THE STINKING BATTLE ALREADY!"**

**Song that's Stuck in my Head: For you non LOTR fans out there, I'll make the aboce reference clear. The Two Towers film score is running through my head, finished watching it with my brother.**

**Diss: I broke my own rules. I didn't want to read the Lord of the Rings books, but my brother is a huge fan, so we're watching the movies when I haven't read the books.**

Classes passed by pretty quickly. It was nearing October, and the weather got cold, real fast. Poor Mia wasn't used to the weather, and spent most of the day shivering. It was even worse on flying lesson days.

We had our flying lessons every Thursday morning. It was the only class we had all together as a year. While we followed the same schedules as the other houses, because of our huge year we had several teachers for the core subjects.

Every Thursday, I was the first one up in our dorm. Ian and John grumbled at me, because I always tripped over something on the way to the bathroom to quickly shower. Their mistake on picking the beds on either side of the bathroom door. It normally stank around there too.

Anyways, I was usually dressed and ready to go down to breakfast by the time the early risers started to stir. I would head down to the common room, and Mia would be waiting for me. We were the first ones down at breakfast, and it gave us a chance to talk without people yelling in our ears. (coughcough Adam and Brigit coughcough)

Today was no different. We were allowed out of uniform for flying lessons, and Mia had stuffed her hands deep into the pockets of her cargo pants. She pulled one hand out to brush through her hair as we walked out of the portrait hole, and I noticed her thick green shirt covered most of her hands, with holes in the sleeves for her thumbs.

"Nice shirt." Mia smirked. I was wearing my annual Weasley sweater. It was a little small in the arms, but I hid that by pushing up the sleeves. Another tee shirt I had on underneath normally stuck out the bottom, so I didn't have to worry about it showing that it was small.

"As soon as my Grandma meets you, you'll be getting them too. Maybe even before." I smiled, and she rolled her eyes.

"Have you replied to your mom at all?" She smirked, knowing it was an annoying subject.

"I have, don't worry. I always send a letter every week, like I promised." I smiled. "To be honest, I should probably write more often. It sounds like Lily and Al have been driving her up the walls, especially with Rose and Hugo coming over pretty regularly."

Mia smiled. "I wish I had little brothers or sisters. My brother is really quiet, and he doesn't really say much."

I nodded, not pushing the subject. Mia had almost lit my hair on fire the last time I pushed for family details, but I was collecting information as she revealed it.

"I can tell you love him." I figured go with the safe option.

"I do. Ready for flying lessons today?"

I grinned, despite the change in subject. I loved flying, and so did Mia. That's why we were always ready to go so early. A lot of people were surprised how well Mia had taken to flying, she was easily the best of the muggle borns in our year. Maybe one of the best in our grade.

"I am so ready. If you don't mind me asking, all the other muggle borns freaked out at the idea of flying. You've really, I guess-"

"Taken off with it?" Mia smirked.

"That was so bad I'm not going to comment."

"Well, I'm used to doing all sorts of stuff like that."

"Flying?" I gave Mia a strange look. "How can you be used to flying?"

"I didn't mean flying, I meant doing dangerous stuff that could potentially get yourself killed. I've gone on month long hikes, mountain climbing, hang gliding, scuba diving, and all sorts of stuff. It comes with the territory of traveling a lot."

"Oh wow." I jumped over the trick step, following Mia down the staircases, but slipped and tumbled down the rest of the flight.

"Smooth." Mia laughed, and helped me up. "It wasn't really much. The farthest I've been from home before now is Utah. We did go to Jamaica, though. That's where I went scuba diving. My family went on a cruise. The other things were all different trips I've been on, for gymnastics and figure skating competitions. Other than the hiking trip. That was just random boredom in the middle of summer vacation, and I was the only one who enjoyed it."

"Are you the really active one in your family?" I smiled at Mia, but she just frowned.

"My dad was really active, but he's really old now. He can't do as much." Mia tilted her head to the side, and pushed through a doorway. "What's this?"

I followed her in, but more cautiously. I heard Mia gasp, and walked a little faster, but when I finally caught up, she was wandering around a room full of instruments.

"What is this place?" I asked.

"It's a music room." Mia picked up a viola. "This is incredible."

"I didn't know you played viola."

"This is a violin, Jimmy."

I shrugged. "Whatever. Still didn't know you played it."

"I do a lot of stuff."

"List it all."

"Figure skating, ice hockey, violin, soccer, school, I run in my spare time-"

"You have that?" I snickered as Mia sent me a death glare.

"Let's just get to breakfast." She brushed past me, but I could see her smiling.

I ran to catch up with her. "Do you know what we're doing today? I think we're starting to play matches, but I'm not sure."

"That sounds about right. Did you finish that Herbology essay?"

"Aw, darn." I hissed. "Can I look at yours?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I haven't done it either."

"Well, we both fail then."

"Jimmy. It's due Monday."

"Oh." I smiled sheepishly at Mia as she rolled her eyes.

We finally reached the Great Hall at 5:50, because of the little detour Mia had taken. We sat down at our usual spots, and I actually ate a good sized breakfast. The battle to get me to eat something would recommence tomorrow. Thursdays, I would need my strength for flying.

Mia laughed slightly. "It's so weird how you barely eat anything every other day, but you just stuff your face on Thursdays."

I smiled the best I could around my full mouth, and continued to eat quickly. Normally, if we finished eating early, Madame Hooch would go out to the pitch early with us and let us fly around.

Mia had finished by the time I was reaching for seconds. We were normally quiet while eating, leaving the conversation for when I had finished stuffing my face.

"So what was that Herbology essay on anyway?" I gasped, setting my glass down on the table. Chugging pumpkin juice was always how I finished eating breakfast, when I ate, but it normally left me out of breath.

"Fungi. It's what is going to wrap up our first unit this year. Worth the most points, so I figured I would try to start ahead of time."

"He hasn't given us much information on what we need to write about, right?"

"Yeah, but I'm copying down notes just so I have them. It's also what we're doing the first part of class today, so I figured get a head start, get to working with the plants faster."

"I don't know why you'd want to. Those leaping toadstools are the worst."

"I know." Mia slid around the end of the table, so she was sitting next to me, and I pretended to be looking over her shoulder at her textbook.

"Think of any good pranks?" I whispered, not letting my mouth move.

Mia frowned slightly, but I knew she was hiding a smile. "McGonagal's birthday is on October 4th."

"That's in two days." I whispered back.

"I can do math, thank you." Mia whispered. "We can give her a present."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "What kind of present?"

"I overheard your cousin Fred talking to Molly about how their dad said something about sending your mum a toilet seat his third year."

"Alright."

"We've also finished Levitation, so we can do Wingardium Leviosa."

"Finish up."

"Do the math."

I frowned at her, before realization dawned. "Brilliant." I breathed with a huge grin. "How do you want to-"

"Are you two ready to go?" Mia and I both jumped as we turned to look at Madame Hooch.

"Of course, Madame Hooch. Let me put my book away." Mia covered her surprise expertly, while I was still floundering around like a fish. I shrugged and grabbed a sausage before running after Madame Hooch and Mia.

_At their full grown heights, James will be the tallest cousin, including Teddy, at 6'6", and Mia will be close behind at 6'1". While Mia's dad is very tall, no one is sure where James got his height from._

"Alright, how about you guys perform some drills." Madame Hooch handed each of us the best school brooms. After the war, quite a few people had chipped in to buy the school a bunch of starter brooms, some better than others. So far, no first year had been allowed on the Cleansweep 12s, but there they were.

Mia and I exchanged grins. This was going to be great.

Madame Hooch had gotten us on the brooms and up in the air. It was now about 6:45. Our classmates will have started trickling down from breakfast in a couple minutes.

In my distraction, I almost missed the quaffle. I managed to bat it away before it smacked me in the face, but I failed to catch it. Mia went flying after it, her long hair streaming out from behind her.

"You could be a Keeper." Mia laughed as she caught up to me, throwing me the quaffle and zooming towards the goalposts, "But definitely not a Chaser!"

"You couldn't be a Seeker to save your life!" I zipped towards the goalposts, and the quaffle actually went towards the goalposts. It would have gone in, but Mia intercepted it.

Mia and I had some banter going about what positions we could play. Madame Hooch had started us off easy, by chucking golf balls up into the sky for us to catch, as if they were snitches, and I had caught the majority of them. The minority being the one Mia tried to catch and ended up smacking into my face.

Madame Hooch blew her whistle, and we came in. Some of our classmates had come onto the pitch, but Madame Hooch ignored them. She handed us each a Beater's bat.

I couldn't keep the grin off my face, but Mia was confused. "What is this?"

"A beater's bat." I drummed my fingers on the side of my leg. "We get to work with the bludgers now."

Mia smiled. She fidgeted a bit as Madame Hooch waved in Teddy, along with Peter and Karl Jordan, the two beaters for Gryffindor.

"I want to see how you two work as a team. Karl and Peter will be trying to hit the bludgers toward Teddy, as he files around the pitch, as he and I will be working on drills. You two will be trying to stop the bludgers from hitting Teddy."

Mia and I exchanged grins. This couldn't be too hard.

Famous last words. Karl and Peter were crazy good, ignoring how Teddy and Madame Hooch were all over the place. I guess we did alright though, because they were all smiling like mad people by the time we were done.

"I think we found our reserve beaters for next year." Teddy was grinning ear to ear. He changed his hair to match my dark brown locks, and gave me a noogie. I pushed him off, but I was happy all the same.

"It's incredible what you two can do." Peter gave Mia and I high fives. "Don't think I played that well as a first year."

The rest of the class had trickled in and were watching us in the air, talking and laughing. Mia was teasing Teddy for flipping around on his broom, dropping the quaffle in the process.

"I had to dodge the bludger!" Teddy laughed.

Mia smacked him. "I blocked it! There was nothing to dodge!"

"Except for your violence."

Mia almost smacked him again, but I blocked her hit. She shook me off and started goofing off with Peter again, but I saw something.

People, walking around outside the walls. Almost like a patrol. I dropped down to where Teddy had flown ahead with Madame Hooch.

"Hey Teddy," I pointed to the darkly dressed figures. "Are they supposed to be there?"

"Professor McGonagal set up a patrol after what happened in the forest, yes." Madame Hooch answered. "However, I don't recognize-"

Alarms had gone off. People appeared in the general area of the men in black, and spells were cast.

They weren't patrolmen. They were intruders.

**Alright guys I goofed. The first time I uploaded this chapter, I forgot to put this down here, and didn't realize it until I was at music camp. So I've felt kinda bad, because I don't wanna go listing all the names of people who've reviewed, because that just takes up a lot of space and messes with my chapter length system. So I'm going to start a little Q&A thing down here- when I remember- and I will ask questions, and you can answer them, and I'll post the answers down here as well, and if you have any questions for me, I'll answer them down here as well, or if you have any ideas of questions I could stick down here. So for the first question:**

** If you could pick your own name, what would it be?**

**So go ahead and answer it, if you want to. I'm mainly doing this because I feel really bad about not responding to reviews, and like I'm a really impersonal author. I just don't like the feeling that I'm putting something out there for people to read and enjoy, and I don't bother talking to you. If you've read some of my other stories, I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm not going to beg for reviews. I think it's tacky. But I do want to communicate with you guys. So until next time,**

** Random Person with No Name signing out.**


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